Wall Street for Dummies

Ninety million American workers actively participate in their companies 401(k) plan. Collectively, they have $14 trillion dollars invested in these plans. Regulations require them to make their own investment decisions by selecting from a list of mutual funds prepared by an investment professional who is compensated by the mutual funds they choose to include on the list. Last year, American workers paid $275 billion dollars in fees to have Wall Street manage their mutual funds. Over the course of the next decade is figure will exceed $3 trillion dollars.   There are those 401(k) participants who choose funds with minimal fees and superior performance. Others choose funds with high fees and subpar performance. The mission of Wall Street for Dummies is to educate 401(k) plan participants on the impact of fees on mutual funds’ performance and provide them with commentary on how to use the cost efficient and best performing funds.  I have a 62-year relationship with the stock market. I have been a stockbroker, finance professor and individual investor. For the past ten years I have conducted my professional efforts as a free-lance stock market pundit. I have no investment products to sell.  All I to offer are the objective observations of one who has been there and done that.