If volatility in your retirement plan investments is giving you motion sickness, then maybe it’s time to share your grievances with your boss.
Young investors in target-date funds white-knuckled their way through February because those funds are heavily invested in stocks for that age group and subject to short-term market swings.
Even some investors approaching retirement saw their target-date funds take a dive during last month’s rout: Fidelity’s Freedom 2020 Fund took a 6 percent hit between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8.
“Investing for retirement is a long-term commitment — not a 10-day time frame — and as a result, the Freedom Funds are a lifetime savings solutions for shareholders,” said Vincent Loporchio, a Fidelity spokesman.
Target-date funds are a mix mostly of stock and bond funds, but not always. As you age, the fund managers move more of the investments to less risky bonds from higher-risk equities. However, the mix of their investments can vary widely among target-date funds.
Investors in target-date funds at work face a conundrum: They don’t necessarily have the savvy to choose their own investments, but they may find themselves questioning their employers’ appetite for risk — especially if they saw their balances drop sharply last month.
Investments in target-date mutual funds approached $1.16 trillion at the end of January, according to Morningstar. Approximately 8 of 10 retirement plans offered these funds in 2015, the Investment Company Institute found.
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