Personal Finance 101 Posts of the Day 6/6/07

• We're In Debt reminds you to make sure your spouse knows about the finances.
• Clever Dude talks about setting up house without breaking the bank (or getting divorced).
• The Dough Roller bashes one of Kiyosaki's Yahoo articles. (Kiyo is dangerous!)
• $1 Million to My Name has a series on retirement mistakes. Part IV covers IRAs and 401ks.
• Advanced Personal Finance talks about why you might want to wait to convert to a Roth IRA.
• Ask Uncle Bill has a list of 10 Financial Mistakes to avoid.
  

Personal Finance 101 Posts of the Day 5/27/07

• Accumulating Money talks about in-service 401k rollovers.
• Boston Gal posts about how to keep your investment advisor from robbing you blind.
• The Simple Dollar tells us how to get past the need for keeping up with the Jones’.
• How I Save Money talks about how to simplify your budget.
• Not Made of Money talks about some store brand products his family uses to save money.
• Bankruptcy Law Network talks about borrowing money from a 401k to pay for debt.
• Fil-Am Personal Finance had a good post illustrating the benefits of starting saving early.
• Financial Jungle talks about closet index funds. (This is a really important think to look at wth all of your funds. Holding overlap can really mess with your asset allocation and cause you to get off track for your goals.)
  

Personal Finance 101 Posts of the Day 4/23/07

• Credit Card Blog lists 10 reasons why everyone needs a credit card.
• Debt Consolidation News talks about how to get a pre-nup signed. I know it’s a touchy subject for a lot of people but I’m personally in favor of pre-nups. People argue that it means you’re assuming the marriage will fail but IMO, all you’re doing is being realistic. There is a chance that the marriage will end and if you address that in advance it probably means you have great communication which will probably help your marriage last.
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has a great post on why it may make sense to NOT roll over a 401k to an IRA. I agree with him and I get asked this question all the time in my classes. There are times when it makes sense to leave your money in a 401k. Typically they are when you have access to investments that would otherwise be closed to you.
• Free Money Finance talks about asset allocation.
• Enhanced Life talks about the excuses people make for not saving.
• Life of a Resident Alien gives 22 tips on how to build an emergency fund.
• An Engineering Approach to Money talks about why it’s good to fund your Roth early.
• 3 Debt Consolidation talks about different debt consolidation methods.
• Canadian Financial stuff talks about how even our northern neighbors hate payday loans.
• Queercents talks about developing a spending plan.

Personal Finance 101 Posts of the Day 4/17/07

• Pro Bargain Hunter compares personal finance blogs.
• The Wise Bread lists his own take on the 7 deadly sins.
• My Simple Life lists 20 ways to keep from spending money.
• The Simple Dollar suggests ideas on things to do during a money-free weekend.
• Smart Money talks about how to save money when going out.
• The Motley Fool talks about putting your retirement savings on auto pilot.
• The Motley Fool talks about rolling your 401k to an IRA.
• Personal Finance Advice talks about ways to cut grocery costs.
• Free Money Finance debates debt payment methods.
• Journey to Financial Freedom takes a look at payday loans.

Take control of your employer retirement plan!

This post is inspired by Broke Now, Rich Later's post on getting a Roth 401k offered at his company.

I love to hear about people like BNRL who are taking control of their retirement options at work. There are too many people who are stuck with horrible investment options at their jobs but prefer to complain about it than to do anything. They just assume that since it's what's in place, it's what the company thinks is best.

In reality, what probably happened is that a representative of your company who knows nothing about benefits was sold a policy that sounded good at the time. They may not have known about things like sales loads, expense ratios or asset allocation options so they trusted the sales person to set them up with a good plan. Unfortunately, what likely happened is that the company got stuck with an expensive plan with bad investment options (like the one I saw recently with no international but 5 bond funds) and, that's what will reamain until someone who knows better comes along and makes an issue out of it.

You should be that someone. For your benefit and the benefit of others in the company.

Will it be easy? Nope. It will take time, effort and persistence. And, it may never happen. But you don't know if you don't try.

If you are going to go down this path, there are things you should be prepared for.

1. Whoever chose the plan, if they're still there, probably won't like that you're trying to change it because it will make them look bad. So, be *very* delicate in how you approach this. Don't make them wrong, just point out alternatives.
2. You should be willing to do this on your own time unless your company assigns this to you as a project.
3. You'll get much further if you have people standing behind you so rally the co-workers but don't be obnoxious by complaining about how horrible the benefits plan is. This will not make you any friends in management and those are the people you need to convince.
4. People like numbers but they like charts and graphs too. This is a sales pitch and you should treat it as such. Offer concrete examples and run the numbers of how this will impact the company and each investor bottom line. For example, if the cheapest fund in your selection is a S&P fund with a 1.15% ER (don't laugh, this is a real example) then run the numbers. Show the difference that a 1.15% ER will have on $10k invested over 30 years. Compare that to $10k invested in VFINX (Vanguard's S&P fund) with an expense ratio of .18% and you will have a nice fat number to show them.
5. Follow the chain of command. Nothing will tick people off more than if you skip them and they hear about it from someone else.
6. Provide expert commentary. If your company is ok with it, find a consultant to hire to set up the new plan. If you're flying solo and have to convince them, do your homework and bring in supporting documentation from known sources.
7. If at first you don't succeed try, try again. If you're automatically shot down, then you need to really rally the troops. Start a grass roots campaign for financial education and get a petition going. Make your point clearly and without emotion. Whatever you do, don't lose your cool.

There are other things, but that should get you started. I'm hoping that BNRL will post about how things are going for him so others can get ideas to use.

If you do decide to go down this path and they agree to change the plan/policy/whatever, see if you can shoot for the stars and get them to implement an auto-enrollment policy. I am a huge supporter of these for two main reasons (the first one is most important to me).

1. It will get the people who otherwise wouldn't enroll on their own to start investing. People don't enroll for lots of reasons, most of which are excuses so if you make it opt-out instead of opt-in, most people won't complain. True story: Recently I was presenting a basic financial education seminar at a local small business. At the end of the seminar I did a little poll to see how many people in that office were enrolled in the 403b plan which had just started a matching program. I was not surprised to learn that a full 2/3 of the people attending the seminar were not enrolled in the plan. ALL of them intended to enroll but just hadn't gotten around to it or didn't understand the process. The solution: everyone got their forms, sat around the table and we got them all enrolled right then. If that company had an auto-enrollment program, all of those people would have been participating the whole time (some had been there for 3 or more years) and they would be much further along the road to retirement.
2. It will benefit the company by getting more money into the plan. This will do a few things: 1 - they will probably get better deals on plan fees. 2 - it will help with non-discrimination testing. 3 - it will allow highly compensated employees to contribute more if they've been phased out.

If you decide to take this all on, then good luck! If you have any questions, just ask I'll be happy to help in any way that I can.

Personal Finance 101 posts of the day 4/12/07

• Young and Broke talks about how people aren't saving these days.
• Broke Now Rich Later tells us how he's campaigning for a Roth 401k at his job.
• Consumerism Commentary asks if personal finance should be required in high schools. He says no but I strongly disagree.
• The 6 Month Project talks about ways to trim your budget.
• Mighty Bargain Hunter talks about pre-packing your lunch to take to work.
• The Thinking Men talk about how you can get a free credit report.
• Yahoo Finance has an article about how deluded people are about their retirement prospects.
• Free Money Finance asked his readers for suggestions on how to save on a small income (read the comments).
• Fool for Travel gives some great tips on how to save money while traveling.
• MSN Money talks about payday loans and their huge interest rates.

Personal Finance 101 posts of the day 4/2/07

• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity talks about Saving Beyond 401k and Roth IRA.
• Resident Alien lists 25 rules to grow rich by.
• Free Money Finance talks about how it’s the little splurges that can get you.
• Grad Money shows us how to get into the swing of cooking at home.
• Consumerist talks about how to stop living paycheck to paycheck.
• Make Love, Not Debt talks about how they developed their budget without killing eachother.