"risk of individually managed retirement accounts is a lot greater than we were all led to believe"
I'm sorry ... what's that again?
The person that answered this question is an idiot. The answer is - yes, diversify your 401k fund. You're buying low now and you'll be in a better position even if the market only goes up 15%.
The second part of this answer is: have 3 months of your household expenses liquid. Available to you at all times. In case of job loss, car repair, household repair, or any other little emergency that comes up so you don't have to touch your retirement savings.
The third part of this answer is: after you've reached your 3 months of savings, don't stop saving. Keep saving. And then diversify even further and buy different products that have lower risk than your 401k, have different and safer tax requirements (because that's where we are all going to get hosed on 401ks), and have low, but stable returns.
The fourth part of this answer is: GET A FINANCIAL EDUCATION (or DON'T EXPECT SOCIAL SECURITY). We work with someone who's really only job is to tell us what we don't know about investing and to help us reach our retirement goals.
If the recent market collapse has taught us all anything, it’s that the risk of individually managed retirement accounts is a lot greater than we were all led to believe. The conventional wisdom was that if you stashed money in these accounts, bought and held stocks “for the long term,” you’d eventually have enough money to retire comfortably even if you live to be 90. It turns out that wasn’t all that wise.Would this clown prefer people didn't save for retirement at all? And what people may "never be able to retire?" I thought we were all going to be provided for by nanny government? Don't I have a social security check coming that will provide for me into old age?
There are a lot of people who followed this advice who are going to have to put off retirement for years. Some may never be able to retire.
The person that answered this question is an idiot. The answer is - yes, diversify your 401k fund. You're buying low now and you'll be in a better position even if the market only goes up 15%.
The second part of this answer is: have 3 months of your household expenses liquid. Available to you at all times. In case of job loss, car repair, household repair, or any other little emergency that comes up so you don't have to touch your retirement savings.
The third part of this answer is: after you've reached your 3 months of savings, don't stop saving. Keep saving. And then diversify even further and buy different products that have lower risk than your 401k, have different and safer tax requirements (because that's where we are all going to get hosed on 401ks), and have low, but stable returns.
The fourth part of this answer is: GET A FINANCIAL EDUCATION (or DON'T EXPECT SOCIAL SECURITY). We work with someone who's really only job is to tell us what we don't know about investing and to help us reach our retirement goals.
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