Guidant Financial Group Blog

Today is 401(k) Day, a day set aside to celebrate employer-sponsored profit-sharing plans. Although we wish (really, really wish) we could say it’s an official government holiday that mandates all financial services employees take the day off, the day was actually named by the Profit Sharing/401K Council of America (PSCA).

The non-profit organization chose the Friday after Labor Day for the annual “holiday,” since they figured that a day celebrating eventual retirement should follow a day celebrating labor. Honest. They put that on their website.

Good thinkers, those PSCA folks. It’s actually a great idea to set aside a day to consider your 401(k), 403(b) or whatever profit-sharing program your employer offers. Most of us have a tendency to “set it and forget it” when it comes to these plans, but they deserve our serious attention. Even increasing your contribution by only a couple of percentage points could, over time, make a huge difference in the size of your savings.

Here at Guidant we work with hundreds of people who, despite being much younger than our usual Baby Boomer demographic, have built up significant retirement accounts. And they’ve done this by making maximum contributions to their plan.

So, we recommend you mark this day on your calendar and determine that on each 401(k) Day you check with your employer to see what your maximum contribution can be. Then figure out if there’s any way you can hit that max or at least move closer to it. And finally, ask your friends and family if they know what special day falls on the first Friday after Labor Day . . . and then feel superior when they confess they haven’t a clue!