UNDERSTANDING YOUR 401(K) AND 403(B)

Most company-sponsored retirement plans are now online, and you can go to your account and see what mutual funds you are currently invested in. If you are not online, you should be getting a quarterly statement in the mail. These often include a pie chart showing how each contribution deducted (pre-tax) from your pay check, along with any company match, is allocated into the funds you have chosen. You can change your allocations at any time. This is your right, and you can shift your retirement savings from one fund to another and reallocate the percentage of any contributions among the funds available.

Once you identify the funds you are invested in, you can perform some due diligence on each one. Start by reading the prospectus. This is a formal legal document, required by and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It should be linked to your online platform, but if not, you can search for it by name or ticker. The prospectus provides details about an investment offering for sale to the public. It lays out the basic investing philosophy of the fund and provides guidance for the fund manager, the person who buys and sells stocks, bonds, and other financial products.