Points to ponder as you consider what can be done to maximize your 401k returns:

1. Are You Maximizing Your 401k Returns?

2. Is Your Plan Working Efficiently?

3. Do you need to Maximize Retirement Income?

4. Do you want Simple but Powerful Strategy to Increase Your Retirement Wealth?

For most people their 401k investment strategy is to “set it-and-forget it”.

This mindset has long been in existence and has been perpetuated by 401k administrators and human resource departments alike. Don’t make the mistake of thinking these people know what is possible, or that they will tell you if they do, to maximize 401k returns.

Unfortunately, accepting the given type of strategy at your company will most often result in less than optimal returns. Yet so many people believe that if there were more to be gained, their employers would have a system set up to capitalize on that fact. They don’t!

If you were able to implement a strategy to squeeze a little more out of your 401k plan, say 8% more every year, this would result in four times the amount of money you would have at retirement because of the power of compounding interest!

Think about that for a minute: 4 times what you might expect when you retire just by learning how to raise your return by 8%.

Is this possible? Not only that, but people in the know are doing it by the thousands right now.

A very simple but powerful 401k strategy that works with any 401k plan involves two things.

1. Awareness

2. Use of an index fund or index ETF coupled with accurate market timing, allowable with most self directed 401k’s (search self directed 401k for more information on how to set up a self directed plan).

By awareness, I mean tracking the value of your 401k holdings on a weekly basis if possible. With this level of awareness you can easily spot a portfolio decline. If it approaches a predetermined amount (5% to no more than 10% suggested) you should switch into a money market. Or if you are well informed and have the ability into an index fund that is designed to profit from a decline (a Bear Fund).

The biggest advantage you will gain is NOT letting your account value sink to such dismal levels that a 40%, 50% or greater gain is required just to get back to even.

This alone could significantly increase the size of your 401 over time.

Is this the only strategy that can safely increase your return rate on your 401k?

Not at all. You just need to know what most people won’t tell you. There are also a lot of resources available on the internet to help you understand what you can do with your 401k to maximize default returns no matter how your 401k is set up by your administrator presently.

The worst thing you could do is let your 401k lay almost dormant with the minimum returns you are getting now. Calculate what it will be worth at retirement now as opposed to what you’d have waiting for you when you retire with 8% more in returns.

That should get you interested in seeking out the education needed to realize a whole different kind of retirement security! Starting with a search engine inquiry using the term “Self Directed 401K” could result in puting YOU in control of your 401k and adding significantly to a truly secure retirement.

Author Bio: C.C. Collins is a respected financial strategist, market timing expert and CEO of BeMarketSmart.com. Readers may avail themselves of a Free Trial of the author’s ETF TrendRider market timing signal service.

Category: Finances
Keywords: 401k,retirement,retirement planning,self directed retirement plans,investing