401(k)s Are a Negligible Source of Income for Seniors

[Kang Colby]

98. Come on, folks. Reading the manual should alleviate a lot of the concerns with 401ks.

I'm part of a crusade to give ordinary investors a fair shake.

1) Pay off debts aside from your mortgage.
2) Spend less than you make, save and invest the difference.
3) Have an emergency fund of 3-6 months of living expenses. (Use judgement, a tenured professor needs less than a temporary employee.)
4) Utilize tax advantaged accounts, 401ks, IRAs, Roth IRA, and HSAs
5) Maximize tax advantaged space before worrying about taxable accounts
6) Be mindful of tax efficiency with respect to investments...e.g. Don't place REIT funds in taxable accounts
7) Make sure your asset allocation aligns with your risk profile...e.g. dont have 100% of your retirement invested in equities (stock) ten years prior to your planned retirement. Most of the problems in this thread would have been mitigated if people followed this simple rule. A good rule of thumb is "age in bonds"...so a 45 year old would be 55% stock funds and 45 fixed income (bonds)
8) Don't pick stocks, invest in *low cost passively managed index mutual funds or ETFs that track the entire market
9) Never try to time the market, set your asset allocation to align with your risk profile and forget about it...periodically rebalancece back to your set asset allocation
10) read more at https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started

*Low cost index funds should generally never have an expense ratio above .30%. Usually, US Total Market index funds run .04-.18%, international funds are a little higher as are funds focusing on specific size companies and or style, small cap value for example.