Which 401k Investor Are You? by Chris Costello, CEO of Blooom.com

I love to find my followers experts to guest author at CCM blog.  These experts truly enrich the available content at this site.  I mean…I can write a few winners here and there, but all of my experts hit it out of the park.  And why wouldn't they?  They offer insightful help and interesting ideas.

Several months ago, I featured Kevin Conard, Co-Founder of Blooom.com.  Here is that very post in case you missed it: Blooom-co-founder-kevin-conard-one-of-the-good-guys.  Today, I am pleased to feature Kevin's friend, Chris Costello, Co-Founder and CEO of the multi-million dollar start-up, Blooom.  Enjoy everyone!

Which 401K Investor Are You?

1. The DIY investor enjoys researching investment options and in their free time can be found reading investing articles from The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Yahoo Finance, etc. This person may believe that paying someone for investment advice is completely counter-intuitive, since they are totally capable of doing it themselves for free. We joke that occasionally, these are the same folks (ahem, Men) who refuse to stop and ask for directions when lost. But that’s another discussion.

2. You have enough coin to actually get the attention of a qualified professional investment advisor. Maybe you are a bit long in the tooth and have done a good job of saving money. Maybe you got an inheritance at an early age. Or maybe you’re a silicon valley stock-option millionaire. Whatever the case – my guess is that you have at least 6 or 7 figures in your portfolio and have the benefit of working with a qualified (preferably fee-only) investment advisor.

3. You know you need help because you don’t have the time, desire, or knowledge to attempt to manage your 401k by yourself. You googled “401k help” and found 19 million entries. You have one of those know-it-all brother-in-laws but you just can’t bring yourself to flatter him by asking for his help. As a result, you’ve done your best to invest your 401k, possibly using one of those “one-size-fits-all” Target Date funds in your plan.

4. You don’t even know that you have a problem. This group of folks really worries me. These poor retirement savers are blindly socking money away into their 401k and have no idea if all of their money is going straight into a money market fund that is (and has been for some time) been paying close to 0% return. Some 401k participants have confessed to us that they thought it was their employer’s responsibility to manage the money and pick the investments for them.

So my question is – which of these 4 types of 401k investors are you? If you are #3 or #4 we invite you to click over to the blooom website and have a look at how we might be able to help. And if you are #1, just do your family a favor – if it’s after dark and you really don’t know where you are – please stop and ask someone for directions. In the end, getting your family there safely is more important than your personal pride.

Chris Costello is the CEO and Co-Founder of blooom. Chris has earned the prestigious CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation and has been working with individual clients and building portfolio allocations for almost two decades. At blooom, Chris builds the actual models used to generate 401k recommendations; allowing blooom users to tap into advice traditionally only available to investors with a gazillion dollars.

Chris Costello, CEO

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