The Great American Do-It-Yourself Retirement Fraud, Brought to You By Big Finance & Co.

[OutNow]

65. Yes, the 401K is terrible compared to the defined benefit pension, but

it is portable. That, IMHO, is a major benefit of the 401K. Back in the old days when you could work for a megacorp for 30 or more years and receive a nice pension are long gone. I know, the megacorp I worked for pulled the rug out from under us at about age 40 and switched us to a defined contribution plan aka a 401K. When members of Congress, including Bernie Sanders and Maurice Hinchey, threatened to investigate the legality of this riff-off the megacorp backed off and allowed many of us to keep our defined benefit pension.

But very few people work for one company during their working years anymore. As we get bounced around from job to job at least we can keep and 401k money we have accumulated and maybe roll it over to the new company's 401K.

It is absurd to think that every worker with a 401K can make all the correct investment decisions needed to build a 401K equivalent to the pros who worked on pension portfolios. But we have no choice. We have to become as smart as we can about how much to invest into a 401K, how to do asset allocation, etc. There are many good books available. People should read them.