It's not just union workers that either don't believe or don't understand the 401K opportunity. Next week I will celebrate 22 years of retirement, so this story goes back to the 1990s. I was the general manager of the product engineering department in a Fortune 500 company, all salaried personnel. Quarterly I had an "all hands" meeting of our 75 engineers and technicians to talk about the company performance in general. In one of those presentations, I explained the current tax benefit of a 401K, the future benefit of tax-free growth, and the "free money" of the company 50% match. Our company offered alternatives of money market funds, broad index funds, or blended funds. I told them that I would give no advice on what investment to choose, just that in was in their economic interest to participate. About 10 years ago I bumped into a single mom at Home Depot from that department who had happily just retired. She gave me a hug and thanked me for that presentation that turned her economic life around and enabled her comfortable retirement. Probably the best feedback I ever got from one of my quarterly meetings.
I've been reading the WSJ since being in business school in 1969. When Jonathan started his column, I immediately became a follower and adopted many of his investment ideas. In one column back in the 1990s, he asked readers to submit their words of wisdom, which I did. To my surprise he printed my response along with several others. First and only time my name was in the WSJ. Then 2 of my former classmates managed to ferret out my email address and sent me emails -- this was in the days when it was much harder to find such information. On another occasion I sent a personal email to Jonathan, asking that since his prose was so good, was he perhaps related to Samuel Clements (Mark Twain). He responded humorously that he wished he was, but he was English -- first that I knew of his heritage, since the accent didn't come through in his columns.
Way back in the 1970s, my beer of choice for at-home consumption was Stroh's in long-neck returnable bottles. One evening I opened a bottle, took a swig and nearly gagged. I thought it was a cigar in the bottle, poured out the beer, and wrote a letter to Stroh's HQ in Detroit. A week or so later a distributor came to our house. I still had the offending bottle. He checked it and found that instead of a cigar, it was a cleaning brush that had broken off during the cleaning and sanitizing process. He took the bottle and left me with a certificate for a case of their beer. Shortly thereafter, I switched to canned beer. And yes, I recycle the aluminum cans.
Regarding the Vanderbilt extended families squandering of their family wealth, read Anderson Cooper's "Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of An American Dynasty". He documents the wasteful, spendthrift habits of multiple generations. He does not bemoan, but states factually, that he inherited nothing from that dynasty. If you are not aware, he is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt. Some sources estimate his personal net worth at $250 million, earned, not inherited.
Years ago we had a minister who preached on the subject of contributions on our annual "commitment Sunday", the day we make financial pledges for the next year. My wife and I both remember his statement "he had never seen a Brink's truck behind the hearse in a procession to the cemetery".
I'm retired for 21 years now, but while working for one company my entire career, I had 4 geographical relocations. Each involved finding a new dentist and family doctor. I had a similar experience with all but the last of these moves, with each of the new guys recommending lots of work, or redoing previous work. And this is well before the days of enormous dental school debts as an excuse. I often said it was as if one course in dental school was how to disrespect the previous dentist's work. Then I got lucky with my last move and for 35 years have been a patient of a reliable, reasonable dentist in a sole practitioner office. He even gives me a senior discount now. The sad news is that he is only one year younger than me, and I fear the day that he also retires and I have to find a new one!
I completely agree with the media statements that imply, or outright say, a cause and effect between a news item and the results of an individual stock or even the whole market that day. Part of the problem is the statement that "investors reacted today by......." whatever action -- buy or sell. Those aren't investors -- those are day trading gamblers. I am old enough to remember watching Lou Rukeyser on PBS's Wall $treet Week every Friday evening. One-half hour of commentary was enough, in addition to reading the WSJ daily. Now we have CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, and maybe others calling in some experts and some people we have never heard of, giving their learned opinions about what happened today or what will happen tomorrow.
Growing up in the 1950s in Cincinnati, my Dad had a cousin in Detroit. The cousin was employed in the auto industry there, and had no kids. While on one of our infrequent visits, the cousin took me under his wing and gave me a loose leaf notebook with info about the stock market and gave me a starting understanding on how to read the market results in the newspaper. Being a kid of that era, I started following Disney, but never invested, not having any funds yet. But it got me hooked on following the market. Many years later as a senior in college I took an investment course taught by a local attorney who was an adjunct professor. As part of that course we had to develop an imaginary portfolio and most importantly, write a paper on why we chose the various investments. My results and documentation only warranted a "B", but that refined my interest. After graduation and employment, I started small when I had enough money to invest in a "round lot" since there was a premium charged for an "odd lot" back then. My career advanced, stock market premiums were lowered and virtually eliminated with the coming of the discount brokers. So I continued to invest, sometimes wisely, sometimes not so wisely. Even later on, 401(k)s were started and from that point the results were very positive.
Somewhere along the line I started following Jonathan Clements' column in the WSJ and gained much great advice which greatly helped my discretionary investments.
Thanks so much to my Dad's cousin, to that college professor, and to Jonathan!!
Here in Ohio our public universities allow senior citizens to audit courses for free on a "space available" basis. You register and attend classes. Tests are optional, but I take them to make sure that I am listening in class and reading any textbooks or other material. Some private colleges also offer this perk -- probably hoping to turn us into contributors! You might check to see if Georgia offers this perk.
Comments
I wonder if the S&P 500 gambler (not investor) has been making timely estimated tax payments on his short-term profit.
Post: Money Moments
Link to comment from December 27, 2025
It's not just union workers that either don't believe or don't understand the 401K opportunity. Next week I will celebrate 22 years of retirement, so this story goes back to the 1990s. I was the general manager of the product engineering department in a Fortune 500 company, all salaried personnel. Quarterly I had an "all hands" meeting of our 75 engineers and technicians to talk about the company performance in general. In one of those presentations, I explained the current tax benefit of a 401K, the future benefit of tax-free growth, and the "free money" of the company 50% match. Our company offered alternatives of money market funds, broad index funds, or blended funds. I told them that I would give no advice on what investment to choose, just that in was in their economic interest to participate. About 10 years ago I bumped into a single mom at Home Depot from that department who had happily just retired. She gave me a hug and thanked me for that presentation that turned her economic life around and enabled her comfortable retirement. Probably the best feedback I ever got from one of my quarterly meetings.
Post: The Benefits of 401(k)
Link to comment from December 20, 2025
I've been reading the WSJ since being in business school in 1969. When Jonathan started his column, I immediately became a follower and adopted many of his investment ideas. In one column back in the 1990s, he asked readers to submit their words of wisdom, which I did. To my surprise he printed my response along with several others. First and only time my name was in the WSJ. Then 2 of my former classmates managed to ferret out my email address and sent me emails -- this was in the days when it was much harder to find such information. On another occasion I sent a personal email to Jonathan, asking that since his prose was so good, was he perhaps related to Samuel Clements (Mark Twain). He responded humorously that he wished he was, but he was English -- first that I knew of his heritage, since the accent didn't come through in his columns.
Post: Thank you, Jonathan
Link to comment from September 27, 2025
Way back in the 1970s, my beer of choice for at-home consumption was Stroh's in long-neck returnable bottles. One evening I opened a bottle, took a swig and nearly gagged. I thought it was a cigar in the bottle, poured out the beer, and wrote a letter to Stroh's HQ in Detroit. A week or so later a distributor came to our house. I still had the offending bottle. He checked it and found that instead of a cigar, it was a cleaning brush that had broken off during the cleaning and sanitizing process. He took the bottle and left me with a certificate for a case of their beer. Shortly thereafter, I switched to canned beer. And yes, I recycle the aluminum cans.
Post: Consumer Advocate
Link to comment from April 5, 2025
Regarding the Vanderbilt extended families squandering of their family wealth, read Anderson Cooper's "Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of An American Dynasty". He documents the wasteful, spendthrift habits of multiple generations. He does not bemoan, but states factually, that he inherited nothing from that dynasty. If you are not aware, he is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt. Some sources estimate his personal net worth at $250 million, earned, not inherited.
Post: Picture This
Link to comment from March 15, 2025
Years ago we had a minister who preached on the subject of contributions on our annual "commitment Sunday", the day we make financial pledges for the next year. My wife and I both remember his statement "he had never seen a Brink's truck behind the hearse in a procession to the cemetery".
Post: Three Things
Link to comment from March 1, 2025
I'm retired for 21 years now, but while working for one company my entire career, I had 4 geographical relocations. Each involved finding a new dentist and family doctor. I had a similar experience with all but the last of these moves, with each of the new guys recommending lots of work, or redoing previous work. And this is well before the days of enormous dental school debts as an excuse. I often said it was as if one course in dental school was how to disrespect the previous dentist's work. Then I got lucky with my last move and for 35 years have been a patient of a reliable, reasonable dentist in a sole practitioner office. He even gives me a senior discount now. The sad news is that he is only one year younger than me, and I fear the day that he also retires and I have to find a new one!
Post: Hole Truth
Link to comment from March 1, 2025
I completely agree with the media statements that imply, or outright say, a cause and effect between a news item and the results of an individual stock or even the whole market that day. Part of the problem is the statement that "investors reacted today by......." whatever action -- buy or sell. Those aren't investors -- those are day trading gamblers. I am old enough to remember watching Lou Rukeyser on PBS's Wall $treet Week every Friday evening. One-half hour of commentary was enough, in addition to reading the WSJ daily. Now we have CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, and maybe others calling in some experts and some people we have never heard of, giving their learned opinions about what happened today or what will happen tomorrow.
Post: Out of Left Field
Link to comment from March 1, 2025
Growing up in the 1950s in Cincinnati, my Dad had a cousin in Detroit. The cousin was employed in the auto industry there, and had no kids. While on one of our infrequent visits, the cousin took me under his wing and gave me a loose leaf notebook with info about the stock market and gave me a starting understanding on how to read the market results in the newspaper. Being a kid of that era, I started following Disney, but never invested, not having any funds yet. But it got me hooked on following the market. Many years later as a senior in college I took an investment course taught by a local attorney who was an adjunct professor. As part of that course we had to develop an imaginary portfolio and most importantly, write a paper on why we chose the various investments. My results and documentation only warranted a "B", but that refined my interest. After graduation and employment, I started small when I had enough money to invest in a "round lot" since there was a premium charged for an "odd lot" back then. My career advanced, stock market premiums were lowered and virtually eliminated with the coming of the discount brokers. So I continued to invest, sometimes wisely, sometimes not so wisely. Even later on, 401(k)s were started and from that point the results were very positive. Somewhere along the line I started following Jonathan Clements' column in the WSJ and gained much great advice which greatly helped my discretionary investments. Thanks so much to my Dad's cousin, to that college professor, and to Jonathan!!
Post: No Barriers to Entry
Link to comment from December 28, 2024
Here in Ohio our public universities allow senior citizens to audit courses for free on a "space available" basis. You register and attend classes. Tests are optional, but I take them to make sure that I am listening in class and reading any textbooks or other material. Some private colleges also offer this perk -- probably hoping to turn us into contributors! You might check to see if Georgia offers this perk.
Post: Still Learning
Link to comment from August 24, 2024