After only three weeks on the job, the replacement officials in the National Football League have been found out to be what professional football fans feared the most. The replacement officials are in way, way over their heads.
With the whole world watching, the replacement officials can’t get the calls right and make the correct decisions fast enough. In more than one NFL game this season, their bad calls and poor judgments have decided the winning and losing teams.
I see the same lack of experience and skill in many of the individual Minnesota company 401(k) retirement plan participants that I meet with. These company retirement plan participants don’t have the background and training to manage hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Just like the replacement officials, most individual company retirement plan participants don’t have the knowledge and tools necessary to manage their retirement plan account money at a professional investment management level. The global economies and global stock markets move at much too fast a pace.
I don’t mean to criticize the NFL replacement officials or individual Minnesota company 401(k) retirement plan participants. Both groups of individuals have been placed into environments that are not suited to their skill level.
The current stock markets are at multi-year highs. Now would be a good time to make the decision to seek out professional investment advice if you don’t have the confidence to manage the stock market risk on your own.
The same thing can be said about the current all-time low U.S. interest rates. No individual company retirement plan participant wants to own a large percentage of bond mutual funds in their company retirement plan account when interest rates begin to rise again.
The best investment management decisions are made before the next great U.S. economic and stock market downturn. The next great stock and bond market decline closer every day, so now may be the best time to look for professional investment advice alternatives.
The Green Bay Packer fans that read this blog post should understand the timeliness of my next question.
The last minute loss to Seattle on Monday Night Football was devastating. How are you going to feel when the stock or bond market takes away the majority of your investment gains?
Just remember that you are the replacement official currently in charge of the investment management decisions in your company 401(k) retirement plan account.
The NFL had no choice but to hire replacement officials with any level of experience. As an individual company 401(k) retirement plan participant, you have many more options available.
Don’t let your company 401(k) plan account investment performance suffer in the future like the quality of this season’s NFL games has suffered.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
