I just came across an alarming statistic: 1 in 4 Americans don't know how much they have saved for retirement.
Just last week I was talking to my sister-in-law. She's a teacher and contributes to a 403b, but doesn't know what's in it. I have more research to do, but I'm pretty sure there's an account somewhere she can log into and see what's going on. It would suck to reach 65 and learn that you've been invested in treasury bonds for the last 40 years.
I get the feeling that people think late 40's-early 50's is the time to start planning for retirement. I've been talking to my nieces and nephews about opening IRAs and I just get that deer-in-the-headlights look from them.
I encountered a small scale version of this situation a few years back — my dad’s wife had a 403b that had been in cash or cash equivalents for the better part of a decade. This was mostly during the bull market too. Even investing conservatively it would have been double the value. It really drives home how important sane defaults like a target date fund can be. And also default opt in/increases/etc.
Reminds me of an old commercial I saw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1gMkw6WDXE
To be clear, I DON'T advise anyone leaving their money in a bank, there are way better places to put it. Stocks, real estate or whatever, I just hate when people put their money away and have no idea what it's doing.
After years of making extra payments and trying to get out of debt, it's tough to get used to the idea of carrying debt again.
So, long story short, my siblings and I inherited my parents' house, and I took on the job of paying off the solar panels. I didn't have enough to pay the balance in full (maybe half) so I just paid extra principal every month. Anyway, several years later, it finally dawned on me that the money I had invested had grown to more than the balance on the loan. The loan was only at 4% which would be a steal in today's economy, but I was so debt averse that I was paying extra on it instead of investing that money.
So now I just pay the bare minimum on it. Heck, even a money market would give me a better return.
I'm also debt averse after 20 years of paying off student loans, car loans, and periodic credit card debt. At this point, if I had enough money in my brokerage account to pay off my mortgage, I would probably do so, even though the interest rate is low.
Also, be sure to include taxes when comparing rates. For example, last year I took a loan to buy a car at 5% interest and was also receiving 5% interest on cash in my brokerage account. It looks like a wash, but I have to pay tax on the the money market interest, so I was actually better off paying off the loan (which I did last week).
