Loading…
10
I finally admitted my 401k plan was just me guessing, after 9 years of picking funds by name
For almost a decade I picked my retirement funds based on which ones had the coolest names. I am not joking. I had money in one called "Blue Chip Growth" for six years because it sounded like something a guy in a suit would pick. Then a coworker named Priya asked me at lunch in March what my expense ratio was and I had no idea what she meant. I looked it up that night and mine was 0.89 percent while her index fund was 0.03. On my balance at the time that gap was costing me around $600 a year, every year, for nothing. I always said I was a "long term, set it and forget it" investor but I was really just avoiding the one hour of reading it would take to fix it. Has anyone else found out their "hands off" plan was actually just neglect with a nicer name?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
jade5171mo ago
Whoa, $600 a year is real money though, that adds up to way more than a cool name is worth. I'd push back and say most people's "set it and forget it" is fine if it's in a target date fund, the problem isn't being hands off, it's never checking once.
10