Tag Archives: 401(k)

A new poll from Gallup says that Americans expect to depend more on Social Security when they retire—and less on 401(k)s, IRAs, and part-time work. I don’t believe it for a minute.…

While I have been publishing research for many years, I consider myself new to the blogosphere. So I was a little surprised when my recent post on a new 401(k) rating service, Brightscope, elicited some response, including a critique…

401(k) accounts are typically among the largest assets held by middle- and upper-middle-income households in the United States. So naturally they draw a lot of attention—in the marketplace, in the media, and in Washington. The government, for example, is proposing …

I’ve mentioned in several previous posts that the anxiety about 401(k) balances has been largely overstated, in part because of the beneficial effects of ongoing contributions and diversified portfolios. This point has come across as Pollyanna-ish to some of you, …

I elicited some grief from certain Vanguard Blog readers by talking about a recovery in 401(k) accounts earlier this year. Allow me to provide an update on the issue.

Recall my basic premise: As a result of ongoing contributions, …

I’m a little tired of reading about how “buy and hold” is dead, and diversification doesn’t work, and how “target-date funds don’t work,” and that there was too much risk, especially for pre-retirees, in these balanced funds. These stories seem …

There are only two reasons you appear on the cover of Time magazine—either you are receiving plaudits from the media, or you’re about to be tarred and feathered. 401(k)s are featured on the cover of Time this week, and it’s …

I realize this will be about my third post on this issue, but the things people are writing about 401(k)s just get more and more absurd, and it’s tough to sit by and let this go unchallenged.

Now the editors …

Each year in August we publish a compendium of statistics about 401(k) plans administered at Vanguard. As the report covers over 3 million American participants, it often generates a lot of interest from the media, policymakers, consultants, and employers. (You’re …

I recently participated in a live webcast attended by a number of Vanguard retirement plan participants. The topic was retirement investing, and questions came fast and furious. We answered as many as we could in our allotted 30 minutes.

One …