Managing Your 401(k) Account

For many people, their 401(k) account is the largest and most important component of their retirement portfolio. However, some sobering statistics from surveys performed by the Employee Benefit Research Institute show that most Americans are unprepared:

• A 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) determined that more workers than ever state that they are a lot (40%) or a little (30%) behind schedule. That means 70% of workers are not where they need to be.

• Less than half of workers (42%) report they and/or their spouse have tried to calculate how much money they will need to have saved by the time they retire. An equal number of people simply guess at the amount needed.

• 70% of workers are not overly confident that Social Security will continue to provide benefits of at least equal value to the benefits retirees receive today.

If you increase your return through active management or increase the size of your contributions to your retirement investments, you can avoid becoming an unfortunate statistic. For other ways to help you reach your retirement goals, please read about the various factors and life events that can affect the standard of living in your retirement years. You can also use our personalized Financial Calculators to help formulate the amount of money you’re going need and the contributions needed to achieve your financial goals. Finally, please visit our Knowledge Center for more in depth information on important topics concerning retirement planning.