My 401K--in the Trump Era--advice?

In My Humble Opinion
81

My employer was a major state university system & their retirement fund has huge assets. If Fidelity is charging them a fee that ends up on my account, I sure can’t find it anywhere. I looked at my annual statement from 2023 and the fees charged were $31.50 on an account value of $950,000. I guess it shows that size matters!

BTW, I am a volunteer tax preparer and it really grinds my gears how many brokerage houses (e.g., the guys with the stagecoach) absolutely ream their “actively managed” clients, particularly retirees, with exorbitant fees on poorly performing accounts. What’s even sadder is that when I point out to many of them that they’re paying thousands of dollars in fees to an “account manager” on an account that is obviously being churned and is losing money in a bull market, they don’t seem to care. :rage:

82

I work for a state university system, no direct fees to me or “maintenance costs” but like many funds there’s an “expense ratio” of 0.06%, presumably the brokerage takes some of that.

83

one potential benefit is that funds in ERISA-covered retirement plans (including most 401k’s and 403b plans) are protected from creditor and bank judgments, while IRA’s are generally not.

84

Well, I set-aside my Trump panic, & diversified with balanced funds.
Here’s hoping.

85

You’ve done about the most an ordinary not-uber-rich citizen can do. Time to chill about it.

86

Though remember that the market is basically at an all-time high, so a drop in the equity market would not be unexpected. But after such events, there’s a recovery and eventual rise. So don’t panic if the number goes down.