Worst Thing Ever

August 22, 2014

Occasionally, I’ll be in a conversation with a group of people and will throw out a random phrase and everyone has to give a quick response to it.  Recently, the phrase I threw out to the group at happy hour was “Worst Thing Ever.” One of my friends, without hesitation, blurted out “New York Yankees fans!” As the group was made up of lifelong Baltimore Orioles fans, we all agreed that Yankees fans can be obnoxious but they aren’t the worst thing ever…close, but not quite. Continue reading “Worst Thing Ever”

Can Your 401(k) Be Part of Your Emergency Fund?

April 11, 2013

One of the results from our recent research report that has gotten a lot of attention is that we saw an increase in the number of employees’ accessing their 401(k) balances through loans and hardship withdrawals from about a quarter in 2011 to about a third in 2012. The conventional wisdom is that this means employees need to do a better job with money management and in particular, building an emergency fund of at least 3-6 months of necessary expenses and maybe even more. For someone just starting out, I think this is absolutely true.  Continue reading “Can Your 401(k) Be Part of Your Emergency Fund?”