C’mon, getting out of bed is a ‘calculated gamble.’
There is no 'if’ about inside forces manipulating the markets. Once the algorithms take over in an up or down market, everything is completely skewed. The important thing to remember is that the market will ALWAYS rebound. It is merely a matter of time. It will also always CRASH. It's just a matter of time.
Investment horizon is critical in one's strategy and ability to assume risk.
If you are willing to allow another to invest in your best interest, why is a pension plan better than an individual retirement account? A Trustee has the same fiduciary responsibility as does a CFP, yet both can be shown to have made bad choices on behalf of those they represent.
It seems you imply that Congress should control the free market. Investing is a gamble. Even the most prolific investors fail.
Of course getting out of bed is a....calculated...gamble, ...Operative word is "calculated". There's a really good chance you won't be hit by a meteorite before you've had your morning coffee.
And that neighborhood pack of ravening hyenas won't savage you on the way to the mailbox.......
And your wife didn't accidentially drop the arsenic container in your soup that you're having for dinner....She loves you enough to keep the arsenic container clearly marked in the cupboard beside the oregano and cinnamon containers.........
But,....as I said,....the Operative word is calculated. How can you make....calculated....decisions on your 401(K)...(..or any stock market decisions, for that matter..)...if you don't have enough information to...calculate the risk?
Most defined-contribution choices are based on pure blind faith......on the say-so of the fund managers,....along with the (legal) disclaimer of "Let the Buyer Beware",...which alleviates any responsibility for any sudden losses...
You Should Have Known Better...
To your point that the Multi-Employer defined-benefit funds invest in the same capricious market,....that is true......
But,......the investment firms are answerable to the Trustees,..who in turn, have to be elected officials of a Union, making them answerable to the membership, ultimately......(..half of them, anyway..).....
This makes investment firms with defined-benefit funds "results-oriented"......or the Trustees will get rid of a poorly performing investment group.
And,......The individual participant does NOT take a financial hit. The "risk" is spread through the entire pool of participants and through multiple (competing) investment firms.....
Should be a ....foolproof ....way of guaranteeing a financially safe retirement, right?
Yeah,...Right.....In 2014 , Wall Street lobbied heavily for passage of the Omnibus Bill which contained MPRA language that, for the first time, allows defined-benefit funds to take back pension payments from retirees.
That,....in my eyes,...is just another smoking gun in Big Business' quest to eliminate the working people's voices in the Money Market.
If 401(k)'s, and associated investment "vehicles"..(..or schemes..)....are so great.....why isn't there made available to the public a clear, understandable, explanation of how to SAFELY "invest" in your pension? I mean without taking a university course in Economics?.....I mean an educational class PRIOR to an employee signing up for such schemes,....explaining the differences between defined-benefit and defined-contribution retirements?
Social Security is a defined-benefit fund. I think just about all of us absolutely rely on Social Security being there at some point. If defined-benefit funds are such losers,...why does the Government promote one so heavily? Could it be the success rate of the 83 year old fund?
And it's easy to understand just what you're getting with Social Security...(..just like it's easy to understand what you're getting with a defined-benefit fund. The ERISA law requires a clear explanation of benefits..).....
Big Business hates pension plans.....Gives the EMPLOYEE choices as to when HE wants to leave......Wall Street hates pension funds....They are terrified of Unions holding large blocks of "unregulated stocks"..(Wall Street's term) that aren't controlled through the ....usual...channels of international banking and investments. The Wall Street Journal hqad an editorial years ago, saying that: "Unions should not be allowed to do "social engineering" with the stocks that Union pension funds owned."
"Social Engineering", to Wall Street, means Unions selling stock in companies that discriminate, refuse to bargain, or refuse to allow collective bargaining .........
That upsets the apple cart........trading and selling stocks based on moral principles instead of instead of purely capitalistic ones.
I think.......(...I am a Cultural Paranoid..)...that, by design,....they are trying to wreck traditional pensions.
And, by design,....selling defined-contribution "schemes"...with no guarantees, and based on pure faith of the fund managers to make altruistic "good choices" on behalf of each individual "investor"....to replace traditional pensions.
What do you think, Brother? Pardon me,..I've got to go...we're having a meteor shower here today, and I'm out of tinfoil to line my hat......