re: Are any of y'all anti- 401K or IRA

quote:

---

Anybody here have an expense ratio anywhere close to this?

---

Many 403b teacher retirement plans are riddled with terrible options. Some include only annuities as investment options in what is already a tax sheltered vehicle, VALIC comes to mind immediately as one of my siblings is stuck in their POS plan. The true cost to them can be much greater than 3% annually depending on the form of annuity and investment options contained therein. Many small employer plans have limited, high cost options. Due to the number of crappy plans and coincident impact on long term returns "recently" being brought to the great overseers in DC the push to provide better options in all plans may gain traction.

My wife recently had a crediting adjustment made to her defined benefit pension plan with a health care company. She glanced at it, no big deal she thought, but I said that change that many will think is minute will cost many long term employees a shite ton of money. 3-months later a letter arrived stating it was estimated that employees should save almost 3% more of gross income into the employee 403b to offset the pension crediting change. One one hand her company doesn't have to offer a defined pension, on the other hand the majority of people in the plan have no real idea of the impact of what most would consider very small changes nor probably even bothered to read the letter explaining the estimated long term effect.