Zacks is just recycling its pablum. It's not all nonsense, but it has a fair share of misstatements, errors, and opinion masquerading as facts.
Its last NASDAQ contribution, dated Jan 14, was also linked to in a post
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/54970/retirees-should-know-these-3-facts-about-required-minimum-distributions-january-14-2020
Compare and contrast with the excerpt above:

Retirees Should Know These 3 Facts About Required Minimum Distributions - January 14, 2020
Failing to withdraw a required minimum distribution (RMD) from your own or an inherited IRA by the deadline results in a big tax code penalty: 50%. That's right. If you were supposed to take out a minimum of $4,000 and (oops!) did not do so, you have the privilege of writing the IRS a check for $2,000. It's important to remember that the rules related to RMDs changed on January 1, 2020.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/know-these-3-facts-to-avoid-paying-half-your-retirement-income-to-the-irs-january-30-2020
Know These 3 Facts to Avoid Paying Half Your Retirement Income to the IRS - January 30, 2020
If you do not make a required minimum distribution (RMD) from your own or an inherited IRA by the specified deadline, the IRS could hit you with a big penalty - 50%! For example, if you were required to withdraw a minimum of $4,000 and you did not, you would be obliged to pay $2,000. Plus, beginning January 1, 2020, the rules concerning RMDs were updated.

More Than Half of Retirement Savers Don't Know This
/You might be missing the very information you need to succeed in retirement.
Catherine Brock
Running a marathon without training is a bad idea. Same goes for betting your last $100 on lucky 17 at the roulette table, or trying to save for a comfortable retirement when you know little about investing. The odds of coming out ahead all around are pretty low./
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/29/more-than-half-of-retirement-savers-dont-know-this.aspx
•••I do believe most or more than 95% of regular MFOers know about diversification distributions and reimbursements issues regarding investments firms /investments related issues

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/277751/000119312520018227/d870665d497.htm
497 1 d870665d497.htm JANUS HENDERSON SMALL CAP VALUE FUND
Janus Investment Fund
Janus Henderson Small Cap Value Fund
Supplement dated January 29, 2020
to Currently Effective Prospectuses
Effective at the close of business on February 28, 2020 the following is added to the Shareholder’s Guide (or Shareholder’s Manual if you hold Class D Shares) of the Prospectuses following the “Redemptions” section.
CLOSED FUND POLICIES – JANUS HENDERSON SMALL CAP VALUE FUND
The Fund has limited sales of its shares because Janus Capital and the Trustees believe continued sales are not in the best interests of the Fund. Sales to new investors have generally been discontinued; however, investors who meet certain criteria described below may be able to purchase shares of the Fund. You may be required to demonstrate eligibility to purchase shares of the Fund before your investment is accepted. If you are a current Fund shareholder and close an existing Fund account, you may not be able to make additional investments in the Fund unless you meet one of the specified criteria. The Fund may resume sales of its shares at some future date, but it has no present intention to do so. Investors who meet the following criteria may be able to invest in the Fund: (i) existing shareholders invested in the Fund are permitted to continue to purchase shares through their existing Fund accounts (and, for shareholders of Class D Shares, by opening new Fund accounts) and to reinvest any dividends or capital gains distributions in such accounts, absent highly unusual circumstances; (ii) registered investment advisers (“RIAs”) may continue to invest in the Fund through an existing omnibus account at a financial institution and/or intermediary on behalf of existing or new clients; (iii) under certain circumstances, all or a portion of the shares held in a closed Fund account may be reallocated to a different form of ownership; this may include, but is not limited to, mandatory retirement distributions, legal proceedings, estate settlements, and the gifting of Fund shares; (iv) employer-sponsored retirement plans that are offered through existing retirement platforms which held a position in the Fund as of the date of the Fund’s closure, as well as employees of JHG and any of its subsidiaries covered under the JHG retirement plan; (v) Janus Capital encourages its employees to own shares of the Janus Henderson funds, and as such, employees of Janus Capital and its affiliates may open new accounts in the closed Fund; Trustees of the Janus Henderson funds and directors of JHG may also open new accounts in the closed Fund; (vi) Janus Capital “fund of funds,” which is a fund that primarily invests in other Janus Henderson mutual funds, may invest in the Fund; (vii) accounts maintained by a financial intermediary that invest pursuant to Janus Henderson proprietary model strategies; (viii); certain institutional investors approved by Janus Henderson Distributors, including but not limited to, corporations, certain retirement plans, public plans, and foundations and endowments; (ix) certain accounts maintained by a self-clearing financial intermediary for which investment decisions are determined by such financial intermediary’s home office recommended list and/or pursuant to such home office’s model portfolios (approved and/or research-covered fund lists are not included within this exception); and (x) in the case of certain mergers or reorganizations, retirement plans may be able to add the closed Fund as an investment option. Such mergers, reorganizations, acquisitions, or other business combinations are those in which one or more companies involved in such transaction currently offers the Fund as an investment option, and any company that as a result of such transaction becomes affiliated with the company currently offering the Fund (as a parent company, subsidiary, sister company, or otherwise). Such companies may request to add the Fund as an investment option under its retirement plan. Requests for new accounts into a closed Fund will be reviewed by management and may be permitted on an individual basis, taking into consideration whether the addition to the Fund is believed to negatively impact existing Fund shareholders.
Please retain this Supplement with your records.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Janus Investment Fund
Janus Henderson Small Cap Value Fund
Supplement dated January 29, 2020
to Currently Effective Statement of Additional Information
Effective at the close of business on February 28, 2020 the following is added to the Shares of the Trust section under “Closed Fund Policies” of the Fund’s SAI:
CLOSED FUND POLICIES – JANUS HENDERSON SMALL CAP VALUE FUND
The Fund has limited sales of its shares because Janus Capital and the Trustees believe continued sales are not in the best interests of the Fund. Sales to new investors have generally been discontinued; however, investors who meet certain criteria described below may be able to purchase shares of the Fund. You may be required to demonstrate eligibility to purchase shares of the Fund before your investment is accepted. If you are a current Fund shareholder and close an existing Fund account, you may not be able to make additional investments in the Fund unless you meet one of the specified criteria. The Fund may resume sales of its shares at some future date, but it has no present intention to do so.
Investors who meet the following criteria may be able to invest in the Fund: (i) existing shareholders invested in the Fund are permitted to continue to purchase shares through their existing Fund accounts (and, for shareholders of Class D Shares, by opening new Fund accounts) and to reinvest any dividends or capital gains distributions in such accounts, absent highly unusual circumstances; (ii) registered investment advisers (“RIAs”) may continue to invest in the Fund through an existing omnibus account at a financial institution and/or intermediary on behalf of existing or new clients; (iii) under certain circumstances, all or a portion of the shares held in a closed Fund account may be reallocated to a different form of ownership; this may include, but is not limited to, mandatory retirement distributions, legal proceedings, estate settlements, and the gifting of Fund shares; (iv) employer-sponsored retirement plans that are offered through existing retirement platforms which held a position in the Fund as of the date of the Fund’s closure, as well as employees of JHG and any of its subsidiaries covered under the JHG retirement plan; (v) Janus Capital encourages its employees to own shares of the Janus Henderson funds, and as such, employees of Janus Capital and its affiliates may open new accounts in the closed Fund; Trustees of the Janus Henderson funds and directors of JHG may also open new accounts in the closed Fund; (vi) Janus Capital “fund of funds,” which is a fund that primarily invests in other Janus Henderson mutual funds, may invest in the Fund; (vii) accounts maintained by a financial intermediary that invest pursuant to Janus Henderson proprietary model strategies; (viii); certain institutional investors approved by Janus Henderson Distributors, including but not limited to, corporations, certain retirement plans, public plans, and foundations and endowments; (ix) certain accounts maintained by a self-clearing financial intermediary for which investment decisions are determined by such financial intermediary’s home office recommended list and/or pursuant to such home office’s model portfolios (approved and/or research-covered fund lists are not included within this exception); and (x) in the case of certain mergers or reorganizations, retirement plans may be able to add the closed Fund as an investment option. Such mergers, reorganizations, acquisitions, or other business combinations are those in which one or more companies involved in such transaction currently offers the Fund as an investment option, and any company that as a result of such transaction becomes affiliated with the company currently offering the Fund (as a parent company, subsidiary, sister company, or otherwise). Such companies may request to add the Fund as an investment option under its retirement plan. Requests for new accounts into a closed Fund will be reviewed by management and may be permitted on an individual basis, taking into consideration whether the addition to the Fund is believed to negatively impact existing Fund shareholders.

By Alpha Gen Capital at SeekingAlpha.com
Summary
° Retirees have an over-reliance and spend far too much time on rates of return. Instead, investors should focus on cash flows, both in and out of your household.
° This is a construct of Wall Street who wants you to be placing all your investable assets into the market, while placing all the risk on your retirement on you.
° We think the next few years will show a significant shift in the way investors/retirees manage their financial retirement.
° It is our belief that a focus on cash flows, not rates of return, will be the future, including the use of income annuities.
Article Here

"Value investing is undoubtedly one of the most famous strategies, and many legendary investors, including Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio), have continued to highlight the importance of adopting this strategy for many decades.
However, the performance of value stocks trailed behind that of growth stocks for the best part of the last decade and especially the last year, raising questions regarding the success of this technique.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio), who runs Baupost Group, does not agree with the critics. In a letter to investors dated Jan. 23, 2020, he defended sticking by value investing even though the performance of the fund lagged behind that of the S&P 500 Index in 2019:"
From Gurufocus.com
Better Article View

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/874964/000093041320000153/c95084_497.htm
497 1 c95084_497.htm
THE LAZARD FUNDS, INC.
Lazard US Realty Equity Portfolio
Supplement to Current Summary Prospectus and Prospectus
By supplements dated October 25, 2019 and November 22, 2019, it was announced that the Board of Directors (the "Board") of Lazard US Realty Equity Portfolio (the "Portfolio") had approved temporary postponement of liquidation of the Portfolio.
In light of other potential options that are being pursued for the Portfolio other than liquidation, the Board has approved, subject to certain conditions, a further postponement of the liquidation of the Portfolio. The Board expects additional disclosures about the Portfolio to be made during the first quarter of 2020.
Dated: January 27, 2020

"Old_Skeet">@dtconroe,
I have enjoyed reading and following your thread on open end bond funds (oef).
One of the things that I picked up on in reading this thread is that you are a momentum type investor and move among one fund, or funds, to another from time to time. Would you please describe your process in doing this? What indicators you may use? What triggers movement? How do you track and etc?
I've been looking for a investing strategy that I might incorporate within my fixed income sleeve to keep it positioned within the faster currents. With this I've invested mostly in multi sector bond and income funds and let the fund manager find the better places to be invested. My fund's range of movenment between their 52 week low vs. 52 week high range from 2% on the low side to about a 6% range of movement on the high side. I've been thinking of a way to use this range of movement within my investment strategy. Any thoughts?"
Old_Skeet, I am on this forum, posting about OEF bond funds, because I am NOT a "momentum type investor", at least Not on a frequent short term trading basis. On M* there is some strong support for an investing approach, that uses momentum data based on 90 day moving averages, to invest in the "best" 4 or 5 funds. Based on the belief that 90 day moving averages signals the beginning or end of a performance pattern, investors will move between various bond oef categories, to select the "best" momentum based fund, with a strong emphasis on risk characteristics as well. I tried to use this approach for a few years, but I am not a good trader, am not very good at selling funds near their highs, and not very good at buying funds near their lows. There are some posters/investors who do this, and can do this much better than me. I am not criticizing them, but I need a different investing approach that fits my strengths, while acknowledging my shortcomings.
With that said, I am not a pure buy and hold investor, and I do keep up with total return performance data, and I will sell a fund during the calendar year when it is lagging severely, normally to reinvest those proceeds in other existing holdings that I am familiar with and approve of. I prefer bond oefs that will produce "at least" 4 to 5%, or more", annually, with low standard deviation, and relatively smooth upward total return performance, that have a history of holding up well in down markets. I will invest in 10 to 12 funds, with the intent of holding them for at least the calendar year, and at the end of the calendar year, I will rebalance my fund holdings, and may choose to replace some existing bond oefs, with similar but better performing funds. For example, I held BTMIX for the entire 2019 year, and I chose to replace it with another very conservative, but better performing Muni fund (AAHMX) for 2020. Another example is that I held PTIAX for almost all of 2019, but toward the end of the year, I chose to replace PTIAX with IISIX, because I believe IISIX will perform similarly in total returns to PTIAX over extended periods but with lower risk.
Some more frequent momentum based investors, will criticize me for not jumping on the performance bandwagon, because there is clearly a hot performing fund, they will hype continually, during very hot performing periods like 2019. I like smooth, above average performing funds, to hold for at least a year, and at the end of the year, my loyalty is then subject to intense re-evaluation for holding, selling, and possibly replacing them. I don't marry my investments, don't take a vow of holding them til death do us part, and do expect a level of total return performance (at least 4 to 5% TR) that is reviewed on an annual basis. In 2020, my 10 to 12 fund portfolio has almost all of the same funds I owned all of 2019, but I did replace a couple of those funds, I did increase the amount of my investment in several existing funds, and I did reduce the amount of my investment in a couple of my existing funds.

I enjoyed reading about Dr. Madell's five year rolling periods of stock market returns. I've noticed this, as well, and have incoropated the five year rolling total return period principal, to assist me, in setting my portfolio's rate of distribution.
What I do is a relative simple strategy. Generally, I take a sum of no more than what one half of my five year average annual return has been. With this, my current distribution rate is now at about 3.25% since my total return on my portfolio has averaged about 6.5% annually for the past rolling five years. In this way, I have found that principal grows over time since the residual is left to increase and build capital formation. In addition, I'm running a 20% cash/40% income/40% equity portfolio which generates enough income without having to sell securities to meet my current distribution needs.
I realize that this distribution strategy is not for everyone as I'm just sharing how I govern and what I have found that has worked well for me and my family through the years. I used this strategy, years back, whan I was running my parents money, when they were retired, and I now use it for me and my wife.
Pretty neat and information packed study by Dr, Madell.
If you are retired and in the distribution phase of investing perhaps others can learn if more investors post how they set their rate of distrbution coming from their portfolio. Naturally, there is the RMD withdrawal requirement that is in place on retirment accounts. But, many of us have money invested outside of retirement accounts. Perhaps, Dr. Madell can write more on some strategies in an upcoming newsletter.
I wish all ... "Good Investing."
Old_Skeet
cc: @tmadell

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadepfau/2020/01/23/laddering-with-individual-bonds/?ss=retirement#2880c6ce3a3f
Laddering With Individual Bonds
Wade PfauContributor
Retirement
Professor @ The American College; Principal @ McLean Asset Management
Duration matching is not straightforward for bond funds when shares of the bond fund must be sold to meet ongoing retirement expenses. If rates have risen, shares of the bond fund may need to be sold at a loss, with more shares sold to meet a given spending objective. This triggers sequence risk and locks in losses. Immunization only works if interest payments can be reinvested at a new higher interest rate to compensate for capital losses. But not all the funds are fully reinvested when a spending goal is met, so reinvestment risk and interest rate risk do not get neutralized. The return on remaining assets would need to be even higher to keep the retirement liability funded. Immunization is harder when there is also a spending goal to support.

https://money.usnews.com/investing/funds/slideshows/best-vanguard-funds-to-buy-and-hold
7 Best Vanguard Funds to Buy and Hold
Vanguard funds can offer consistent returns and low costs for the long-term investor.
By Rebecca Lake, Contributor Jan. 24, 2020
U.S. News & World Report
More
In this June 7, 2018, photo the logo for the Vanguard Group is shown on correspondence in Zelienople, Pa. Vanguard said Monday, July 2, that it will stop charging commissions to trade most of its competitors’ exchange-traded funds.
Picking low-fee funds.
Vanguard funds are a popular choice among investors who favor an indexing strategy. With index investing, the objective is to match the performance of a stock market benchmark, such as the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq. This approach may appeal to the buy-and-hold investor who's seeking the best funds to own for retirement. Vanguard's fund selection offers an advantage over competitor funds, in that they boast some of the lowest expense ratios around. Lower costs mean investors can hold on to more of their returns over time. Here are seven of the best Vanguard mutual funds for a buy-and-hold strategy.

I do not or never have owned a "core" bond fund. I am not really sure what the benefits are. When comparing them to some non-traditional funds they are much more volatile. I will assume the higher credit rating in these funds are the attraction. It seems that many less volatile funds in other categories work just as well for ballast.

Agreed for the most part at present.
That said, I used to own a couple core/IB funds a few years ago. I recently jettisoned my last one, a residual holding in WAPIX, which was good while I owned but, but worthy future gains with it seemed iffy at best.
I currently run with a spattering of munis, multis, nontrad's and one preferred stock fund. I own bonds only because I need to own them as ballast** for my stock allocation and would rather let respective PM's slice/dice.
**Aside: Portfolio ballast to me is anything other than stocks.
Either way one's preference on core funds or others, dt IMO is doing a GREAT job here of covering bond categories and topics, and I wish him continued success with this thread and those initiatives.

bee wrote about how muni bondsales might or might not generate taxable capital gains or losses. The fact that muni fund distributions are federally exempt is a completely different matter.
@FD1000, bonds are taxed differently from funds. Sales are taxed differently from interest (bonds) or distributions (funds).
Sure, muni interest, whether received directly from bonds or indirectly via distributions from muni funds, is generally federally tax exempt. That's the easy question. The harder question which @bee raised is how "gains" or "losses" are handled. A different matter altogether. And one where what you know about muni fund distributions is irrelevant.
What many people think of as a capital gain on a muni bond (buying at a market discount and redeeming at par) is usually treated as ordinary taxable income upon sale. Unless the amount is de minimus, in which case it's treated as a capital gain. Or unless one has opted to declare the "appreciation" (accretion) annually as taxable ordinary income.
I haven't even gotten started on straight line vs. constant yield accretion for muni bonds.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accretion-of-discount.asp
IRMAA is not the only thing affected by tax-exempt interest. Tax credits for health insurance you purchase yourself is also based on a MAGI calculation that includes tax-exempt interest.
That said, there are other MAGI calculations for different purposes that don't include tax-exempt interest. For example, the MAGI calculation for Roth contribution eligibility excludes not only tax-exempt interest but the amount of Roth conversions. (See line 2 of IRS Pub 590a Worksheet 2-1).
The point is not to make assumptions about what is or isn't included as part of MAGI without checking the particular purpose of the MAGI calculation. That's what the 'M' (modified) stands for.

Interesting to note that gains (on muni bonds) are tax free and losses (on muni bonds) can be claimed against other taxable gains.

@MSF
All my HY munis funds' monthly distributions for 2018 (and all priors years) were Fed exempt. I never buy single bond and probably will never do it in the future.

Relevance?

Thanks @bee. This is what I most enjoy about MFO - the free exchange of ideas. I am not a financial advisor or expert. Just my “gut” reactions (worth maybe a nickel).
#1: Put It All In One Fund - Not me!
#2: Create Your Own Yield - I like the term “stream of return” better. One needs to have a reasonably steady stream of return in retirement as averaged out over the short / intermediate term. This may be accomplished with a broadly diversified portfolio and some prudent hedging and / or cash reserves. Unless it’s a tax consideration, I don’t think it matters whether that SOR comes from “income” or capital gains - particularly in tax-deferred accounts.
#3: Don’t Buy A Long-Term Care Policy - I’m agnostic on this one. Don’t know enough about the subject.
#4: Cut Your Portfolio Management Costs - Yes. Of course. But I won’t be driven into index funds. I still retain confidence that the good actively managed funds will do comparably well over longer time spans, in spite of indexing being all the rave today. Active is what I grew up with. I’ll stick with what I know (but have owned index funds on some rare occasions).
#5: Pay Off Your Mortgage Rapidly - Both sides are right. No correct answer. I’m happy to be carrying a small 3% fixed-rate mortgage on main residence. Also own a couple parcels that are paid off. Knock on wood - but I’ve been able to pull much higher than 3% annual on my (tax sheltered) conservative investments over more than 20 years in retirement. There’s an added advantage in having more liquidity at your disposal than if that money were sitting in the home. Like I said ... I can see both sides of this one.
#6: Moonlight - Hell no (not me)! - but others will feel differently. I’ll say here that I perform a lot of home maintenance which others would pay to have done. So, in a sense, I am working. But it’s my schedule - not somebody else’s.

@LLJB
I contacted the compliance officer at Leland and asked him to address the fund's use of swaps, leverage, the 4Q18 MAXDD, and your example of the Mastercard swap, from the information you cited earlier.
His response: "Unfortunately, I can’t disclose any information beyond what is already publicly available. This includes the leverage ratios and specific holdings in the swaps."
I'd like to make clear that I did not doubt what you said about these issues. I was trying to see if I could get more information but wasn't successful.
So as it stands now, what you wrote is the best information we can get about issues like swaps et. alia., and as far as I'm concerned, that's good enough for me.
IIRC, you have written about swaps before, perhaps one regarding DSEEX, and some have complimented you about it.
(FWIW) for the year ended September 30, 2019, the Venture Capital Index Fund had realized losses of $3,446,758 from swap contracts.

Taxation of muni bonds is not so straightforward.
Thumbnail sketch:
- "gain" (actually accretion) due to OID is reportable annually as tax exempt interest (can affect SS, IRMAA)
- "gain" due to market discount is taxable as ordinary taxable income (unless de minimus, which is reported as cap gain); may be reported annually or upon bond redemption/sale
- "loss" is reported as amortized bond premium (ABP), essentially return of capital, on a yearly basis (see Form 1040-INT box 13). Cost basis is reduced accordingly.
- any additional loss is reported as capital loss at time of sale.
Simple examples:
$1K par bond is purchased for $900 (no OID), redeemed at maturity five years later for $1K. The $100 "gain" is reported as ordinary income.
$1K noncallable par bond is purchased for $1100, redeemed at maturity five years later for $1K. Each year, the tax-free interest is reduced by some amount (ABP) according to formula, which over five years totals $100. There is no loss; the adjusted purchase price is $1K.
The best pages I've found on muni bond taxation are at InvestingInBonds.com.
See http://investinginbonds.com/learnmore.asp?catid=8&subcatid=60
See also: https://scs.fidelity.com/webxpress/help/topics/learn_tax_info_year_to_date.shtml
The fun really begins when multiple considerations are combined. You can purchase an OID bond at a premium to its discounted price, called acquisition premium. In that case you have to net the OID accretion and the premium amortization.

Noticing a capital loss in a muni bond fund I owned ( in a taxable account) I sold my position and recorded a tax loss (harvest) in December.
Interesting to note that gains (on muni bonds) are tax free and losses (on muni bonds) can be claimed against other taxable gains.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinsosnoff/2020/01/22/how-to-maintain-and-compound-inherited-wealth/#3f98161f2f58
How To Maintain And Compound Inherited Wealth
First, a brief history of financial markets:
Stocks beat bonds over a 25- to 50-year time span.
Volatility of fixed income investments can equal that of equities in both directions.
The market (S&P 500 Index) can sell at book value, now at two times book. Bond yields can range from 1% to even 15% when inflation rages.
Thirty-year Treasuries, currently yield 2%, but in 1982 during FRB tightening hit 15%. Five-year paper, a comparable trajectory.
Inflation, now at 2%, rose to 8%, early eighties. It made our country uncompetitive, as in General Motors.
Dollar depreciation or appreciation can range between minus 25% to plus 25%.
Deep-seated financial risk lurks in almost every type of asset. Banks capitalized at $200 billion can self-destruct with hidden bad loans. American International Group needed a government package of $180 billion to remain solvent after guaranteeing sub-prime loans.
Municipalities, even countries, in turn can bankrupt themselves. Consider Greece and Venezuela. Brazil, Iceland and Thailand were world destabilizing forces through their overleveraged banks even though their GDPs were miniscule. Chicago, Detroit, Sacramento, possibly New Jersey currently and New York City some 20 years ago saw the wolf at their door.
Puerto Rico now hovers near basket case status, even shamelessly falsifying their hurricane mortality numbers.

https://www.fool.com/retirement/2020/01/22/the-top-12-401k-mistakes-to-avoid.aspx
The Top 12 401(k) Mistakes to Avoid
An employer-sponsored 401(k) account can be a wonderful thing, helping you amass hundreds of thousands of dollars for retirement. Don't make any of these mistakes, though, or they could cost you -- a lot.
Most people can't sock away $26,000 each year, but the table below shows how much you might amass over time investing various sums regularly and earning an average annual return of 8%:
Years of 8% Annual Growth
Balance if Investing $10,000/Year
Balance if Investing $15,000/Year
Balance if Investing $20,000/Year
5 years
$63,359
$95,039
$126,718
10 years
$156,455
$234,683
$312,910
15 years
$293,243
$439,865
$586,486
20 years
$494,229
$741,344
$988,458
25 years
$789,544
$1,184,316
$1,579,088
30 years
$1,223,459
$1,835,189
$2,446,918
401(k) mistakes that can cost you a lot
It's clear that you'll need to be diligent if you want to build wealth with your 401(k) account. You'll also want to avoid common pitfalls. Here are 12 common 401(k) mistakes that could cost you a lot, followed by a closer look at each:
Not participating in your 401(k) plan
Not contributing enough to your 401(k)
Not increasing your 401(k) contributions regularly
Not contributing enough to get the full employer 401(k) match
Loading up on too much company stock
Staying with your 401(k) plan's default investment choices
Picking the wrong mutual funds and investments
Ignoring fees in your 401(k)
Not considering the Roth 401(k)
Ignoring important 401(k) rules
Cashing out or borrowing from your 401(k)
Not appreciating the downsides of 401(k)s