Most 401(k) Savers Are Staying the Course: ICI Study
Source: Investment Company Institute

Most of the millions of American workers who invest for retirement through a 401(k) plan are staying the course through tumultuous markets and want to preserve the fundamental strengths of this retirement plan, according to new research released today by the Investment Company Institute.
…
In an exclusive survey of records on 22.5 million participant accounts, ICI found that, despite the decline in account balances caused by the 40 percent drop in U.S. stock markets, the vast majority of savers are staying put. The records, which cover the first 10 months of 2008, show that:

• Only 3.0 percent of plan participants stopped contributing to their retirement plan;
• Just 3.7 percent of participants took any withdrawals from their accounts, including 1.2 percent taking hardship withdrawals; and
• Fifteen percent of participants had loans outstanding, in line with the 13 to 17 percent figures reported since 1996 in annual studies conducted by ICI and the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

+ Retirement Saving in Wake of Financial Market Volatility (PDF; 333 KB)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Business and economics, Investments, Labor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.