How To Read A 401k Fund Menu In Three Steps
Twenty names built from the same eight words. Three things on that screen tell you what you need, and the rest is decoration.
Topic
401k
Target Date Funds: What The Year On The Label Buys
One fund holding several others, shifting toward bonds on a published schedule. The convenience is real and the question is only ever what you are paying for it.
Vesting: Why Leaving 11 Days Early Costs The Whole Match
Your contributions are yours from day one. The employer match sits on a timer, and the timer is a resignation date decision rather than an HR term.
SEP, Solo 401k Or SIMPLE: Which Shelters More?
A SEP, a solo 401k and a SIMPLE all shelter self-employment income and give you wildly different amounts of room per dollar earned. On a modest profit the gap is roughly three to one.
The 401k Rollover Mistake That Triggers A Tax Bill
Direct and indirect rollovers move the same money to the same place. Only one of them can hand you a tax bill for a transaction you thought was neutral.
What Happens To Your 401k When You Quit
Four things can happen to the account and three of them are fine. The fourth is presented to you as the easy one.
The Beneficiary Form Beats Your Will
One form filled in at an HR onboarding session decides where your retirement account goes, and a will that says otherwise does not get a vote. Most people have not looked at theirs in years.
Roth Or Traditional: One Number Decides It
Strip out the noise and the whole choice comes down to your tax rate today against your tax rate when you withdraw. Everything else is a tiebreaker.
The Five Stops Your 401k Money Makes
One dollar, from the payroll deduction to the fund share it eventually buys. There are five stops along the way and two of them can cost you money quietly.
Catch-Up Contributions: What Starting At 50 Recovers
The extra room recovers less than most people hope and far more than nothing, and none of it depends on what you have already saved. Here is the arithmetic on fifteen years of it.
Compound, weekly
One money decision a week, with the arithmetic left in.
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