stoney,
I have no idea what funds you are reffering to in YRC's 401k plan. I'm sure the funds you mention are for non bargaining unit employees, since Teamster members are relagated to the Teamsters 401k plan. Last year the Teamsters 401k had a very good aggressive fund that I put everything into and realized a 28% return for ther year. Today, that fund has been changed somewhat and is losing over 13%, a 41% swing in the opposite direction. After losing $10,000 in the first 3 months of this year, I changed into a stable fund returning 1.31%. This is one of 2 funds available right now in the Teamster 401k returning any money. With 10 funds to choose from, half are returning 12% losses or more, 2 are positive,(1.31% & 0.76%), and the others are down roughly 6%. While I worked for Preston, we had our own 401k plan. I put heavily into the George Putnam funds which made me a killing back in the dot com days. That fund was returning 51%. However, like all markets, when they go down, they go down. I lost $80,000 when the dot coms crashed. So, even though I believed the myth of being a millionare by retirement, you can see how losing $90,000 over 20 years has changed the future of my 401k balance. Right now, I am sitting around $50,000 and with no contributions made since last year when I was injured, and with only 5 or 6 years to go before I retire (if my surgery allows me to return to work), I will be very fortunate to realize a 401k balance near $200,000. Mind you that when I contribute, I put 15% pretax and 5% after tax for a 20% contribution each week.
i don't know either. that dave guy said he knew of a YRC fund returning 6%. i said he may be right, i didn't have any info on that particular fund. my point was just because 1 fund may be doing bad doesn't mean all funds are like that. thank you for informing me.
also i never said investing in a 401k was 100% safe. i realize you lost money from dot.com bust. but a couple of bad years doesn't mean you stop investing. every fund will go down over a 20 or 30 yr period. but its like buying a house. over a 20 or 30 yr period your house value will go up. this year and maybe next year it won't, but over a long period time it will go up.
do you guys know that the pension is invested in the market, same as a 401k. but that guarantee is whats killing these pensions. a 401k there is no guarantee. a pension works almost just like social security program, and we can all see how well the program is working. its crap.
millionaire myth? why is it so hard to believe retiring a millionaire is so hard. if you believe everything you hear on the news, then you think no one is retiring a millionaire. but in the real world, plenty of people are doing it. how much do you think has to be in an account with a pension in order to receive around $3000 a month for the rest of your life? that money doesn't come out of thin air. the pension is being invested and relying on monthly contributions from the company. if the companies go under and the pension is managed poorly, what do you think that does to the pension? yes its protected by the government. but the government pension security program is already at its limits trying to fund defunct pensions right now.
so if you think you 100% covered by your pension, you wrong. its not as safe as you think.