As someone who actually likes personal finance stuff, it’s a safe bet that I keep a pretty close eye on all my accounts. I watch my checking and savings accounts very closely but I also keep a sharp eye on my 401K, Roth and 529 accounts as well. By doing this, I ensure that I have a good grasp of where I’m at financially but most importantly, I make sure that I’m not being hit with any fees or fraud.
I do have one blind spot with our finances. It’s my wife’s 401k at her work. The only glimpses that I’ve been getting of her account are through the normal quarterly statements that show up in the mailbox. In today’s Internet age, I really don’t have much of an excuse other than to say I just haven’t prioritized getting her acct info so that I can track it. I now realize I need to bump it up in our priorities.
What really brought this back to my attention was a letter we received from my wife’s company. It said, “In an internal review of retirement account contributions, we discovered that you are due additional employer contributions under the XX employee 401k plan.†Yikes. I’m grateful that her company happened to discover this but I’m not too excited that I didn’t find it myself. Due to this error, they added an additional $875 to her account including what they estimate the maximum gains she would have had on those funds if they had been invested correctly. (I’m glad I wasn’t the Financial Analyst that had to calculate that).
So, you can bet that I’ll be getting her account info and will be tying that in to the rest of our account balances from here on out. The other important reason for doing this is because I haven’t really been involved in her investment elections. I vaguely recall recommending two funds for her to select but I don’t know if she did. (Yes, she’s a very capable person but she readily confesses that she has no idea what to do with her investment choices and has traditionally left that up to me.)