Sell Your Retirement Account Weeds

With summer finally here, now is the time to get outside, clean up the tools, and begin weeding one’s flower beds and gardens. As all good gardeners know, preventing weeds from growing now is an important step to making sure that you can enjoy your flowers all summer and ensures a bountiful fall harvest.

The same can be said about one’s retirement plan portfolio. It’s important now to get rid of any mutual funds you currently own that have been dragging down the annual investment returns in your company retirement plan account.

Think of any poor-performing mutual funds you may currently own as the “weeds” in your company retirement plan portfolio. These mutual funds may have “lagged” the overall stock market benchmarks and the recent investment performance of other mutual fund options available in your company retirement plan menu.

In early May, the stock market averages were at multi-year highs. Now would be an excellent time to begin to employ the prudent investment management strategy of “weeding out” any company retirement plan mutual funds that have “underperformed.”

Selling your worst mutual funds at a high point in the stock market cycle allows you to get the best possible price. It also allows for you to preserve your retirement plan principal prior
to any future stock market sell-off.

In the summer time, you don’t have to put up with garden weeds or bad mutual funds. With a little extra effort and the right tools, your garden and your retirement plan account will look its best for the rest of the season.

If you can’t identify the bad mutual funds in your company retirement plan account, send me the name of the mutual funds you currently own. I will send you back a report that will tell you to “let them grow” or to “pull them out.”

Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.