Don't let yourself be lunch for the financial services industry - read this book
Securities lawyer and investment adviser Daniel R. Solin has saved our bacon once again, just as he did at this time last year. That's when he offered a short book on investing for everyone - even those sitting at the beach, smudging pages with sun-block-smeared fingers.
Now he offers "The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read" (Perigee Books, $20). Like his earlier book, "The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read," the new book is short. How short? Try 200 pages divided into 53 chapters. That's fewer than four pages a chapter. The last chapter, "Who Says So?" is for data geeks. It quickly takes you through all the supporting research for the preceding 52 chapters.
Solin lays out how most of us are getting messed over in our 401(k) plans and 403(b) plans. It's also a blueprint for how to improve them. If they were improved, all of us who actually work for a living and try to save money might live to see our plans bear fruit, rather than losing it to the excesses, expenses, and marketing hype of the Retirement/Investment Complex. Here are some of the big points:
Take those steps - cutting costs by indexing and building a simple Couch Potato Portfolio-like retirement plan - and you'll have a good shot at accumulating about 50 percent more by the time you retire. That's not small change.
I guarantee that you will become very angry as you read this book. It makes very clear that no one is looking out for workers.
Not Congress, not regulators, not corporate executives, not education unions, and certainly not the financial services industry. To all of them, you and I are just lunch.
Anger without redress, however, is wasted energy. Fortunately there are remedies.
Today, not tomorrow, anyone who has a plan that stinks can do better simply by investing in a low-cost IRA with index funds. You can also agitate for better plan choices.
My suggestion: Read this book and take action. The difference will all be in your pocket.
Scott Burns is a syndicated columnist. He can be reached at scott@scottburns.com.
