See A Boost In Your 401(K)? A Financial Expert Has Advice On What To Do, And What Not To Do

It’s a new thing on social media – people posting on their 401(k).

Some people are not shy about revealing financial information for all the worldwide web to see – on Twitter or Reddit. People post their 401(k) goals and some say they have noticed a boost.

“It’s doing great,” one investor said.

“I actually just checked it because I heard they were doing well, and I looked and it was, so I don’t have anything to compare it to,” said Shannon Frawley of Westchester County.

President Donald Trump touted the states of people’s 401(k) during the State of the Union Address.

“The great news for Americans – 401(k) retirement pension and college savings accounts have gone through the roof,” Trump said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 14 percent of all employees offer 401(k) or other defined contribution plans to their employees. And according to the most recent figures available, only 41 percent of those employees contribute.

Most of the people CBS2 stopped on the street do not have a 401(k).

“No, I don’t,” one passerby said. “I’m retired and I have a pension from the City of New York.”

But pensions are passé. Few are offered anymore. And some conceded that they have no retirement savings plan at all.

“I’m in between jobs right now so and basically I spent it,” one passerby said.

Another simply said, “No.”

If you do not have a 401(k), experts say you do have options, such as putting money in a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) or a Roth IRA. But if you do have a 401(k), you may be feeling the euphoria. With the stock market booming, there are some question what to do with the moneyCBS2’s Alice Gainer got some advice from an expert.

“What’s really going on is people are just seeing inflation of all asset classes,” Bob Fuest of Fuest & Klein Wealth Advisors warned. “You should not just sit on your 401(k). You should restructure your portfolio now. The bond market in particular right now is in a bubble in many cases, especially the municipal bond market. So if you hold bonds and you hold bond mutual funds, you might want to take a look at the holdings within those mutual funds.”

Fuest adds that you should make sure you are contributing the maximum, or as much as you possibly can – even beyond what you company matches – because it grows tax free. And even if you are feeling confident in your 401(k) total, Fuest urges against withdrawing any money from it for a vacation or a home.

Source: CBS2 News