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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill/WA who wrote (99399)	7/3/2003 12:04:34 AM
From: Joan Osland Graffius	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Bill, KT can answer your question better than I can. Post to him if he does not pick up this one. My daughter has a self directed 401k and I manage it. <gg> The problem with these plans are the selections stink. My daughter has only 5 funds I would throw any money in. She has a short term federal debt fund and pimco's total return fund. I have 87% of her money in these funds. They have a couple of Templeton foreign funds and a Templeton US equity value fund. The Templeton US value equity manager has 37% of his money in short term federal debt. <g> My daughters employer matches her contributions and her contributions are pre tax income (kids are in a high tax bracket). This alone makes good sense for her to throw as much money at this thing as she can. My job is to make sure we preserve this capital.

To: Bill/WA who wrote (99399)	7/3/2003 12:53:38 PM
From: benwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Bill, I have a 403b which allows Fidelity, Vanguard, TIAA-CREF, and a couple other choices. Within each choice, my employer plan allows a fixed set of funds. For Fidelity, I think there are 80 choices. I self-direct within those choices, meaning I choose which fund or funds my contributions go into, and I also can shift money between funds. I just log on via the Internet and do that stuff, independently of my employer. There are firms I've heard about which allow complete self-direction, akin to an IRA in a brokerage account, which is about the only way my employer could make my plan better (for me -- that kind of flexibility would be worse for many). As it is, I have money in TIAA-CREF, Vanguard, and Fidelity for my 403b. My plan has never made a mention of using an account at a broker such as TD Waterhouse. But I keep meaning to write them and ask for a change in the plan which would permit such a choice.