Yes I was. But still most 401k's you just pick your investment strat, and let it run. Actually talking to a firm means some sort of personal relationship with investors. My experience with "investors" is they like to take a cut of your profits and even if they don't make a profit they still expect to take a cut of your money. IMO you are better off with some sort of vanguard type fund that is selected based on your risk aversion.Lots of 401K's are handled by investment firms. You must have been joking.Got off the phone with her Investment firm? That does not sound like a 401k investment, that sounds like a den of thieves.I dont know all the particulars. I just remember the look on her face when she got off the phone with her investment firm. She was a single woman that relied on the suits to invest her money. She was stunned.How did she manage to do that? What the hell was she investing in? The worst case scenario would have been someone moving from low yield bonds that had not gone up to realestate when that took a dump then to stock when that took a dump then back to low yield bonds after loosing all their money only to not see any gains when the market reached new highs. Or they picked one stock that took a dump? IOW a complete moron? Let's hear how you manage to loose all your money due to a short down turn in the market.You arent everybody Brown. Most people lost everything. I know a woman that was planning on retiring and lost about 90% of her money for retirement.My 401k did not go in the crapper. Matter of fact it's gone gangbusters. Maybe you are a poor steward of your money, but as for me I don't need your fucking help. Wall street execs get big bonuses because the democrats and republicans both refuse to ensure that the owners of publicly traded corporations are allowed to have a say regarding executive pay scales.
I do not believe it is even possible for someone to pick a safe investment strategy starting from 1980 to today and loose money. Every single safe investment strategy would have been an order of magnitude better than SS. But yes, if you are a complete moron that buys high and then sells low you should probably be putting your money in your mattress where a fire is less likely than your strategy of burning your money with bad investment ideas.