How you can effortlessly have the best retirement plan

How you can effortlessly have the best retirement plan

90 million Americans are participating in either a 401k, 403b, or government TSP retirement plan. For the average American, this is their largest financial asset. However, when someone doesn’t have enough net worth to get the attention of a qualified advisor, people are left to DIY their retirement finances. Without the proper advice and guidance, most people are losing investment dollars and paying a lot of money in fees. Thankfully, there is a way anyone can have the best retirement plan and get it effortlessly.

I had the opportunity to discuss this matter with Chris Costello, a 22 year veteran of the financial industry and Co-founder, of blooom.com. During our conversation, Chris explained, “Wall Street makes it difficult for the average person to know what really happens on Wall Street. They have made it fairly opaque and hard to understand all of the hidden fees. Almost no one has a grip on what they're paying in fees. ”  Our discussion took off from there as Chris relayed his story about why blooom got started.

Why blooom came to be

Chris began as a retail face-to-face financial advisor. As time went by and his business grew, he was serving larger and larger accounts until he was only helping people who were worth a million dollars or more. Purely from a financial perspective, his own parents didn’t qualify to receive his financial advice.

Chris’ personal relationships with family, neighbors, and friends made him realize that someone with less than a million dollar portfolio was not getting the help they needed to substantially grow their retirement. Even though many had a 401k, they seldom knew much about it or how to manage it because it was insanely complicated. It became clear that the people who needed his help the most were the least likely to get the help they needed. This wasn’t just true of Chris’ services but of the financial industry as a whole.

Inspiration to do something about it came when colleague Kevin Conrad, another Co-founder of blooom, said “Wall Street has made a habit of running in the opposite direction of people with small accounts. We should build something and run towards them.” With this passion to serve people, blooom was born.

Blooom provides a solution for those who don’t want to DIY their retirement

Blooom has built a tool so that if you have a 401k you can go to blooom.com and get a free unbiased analysis of the health of your account. Within 4-5 minutes the analysis will show whether or not your account is invested properly. Whether it has the right amount of diversification, the right mix of stocks and bonds, and what kind of hidden fees are being paid out of your account? Wall Street has made it incredibly hard to figure out what amount of investment dollars are going to fees. Blooom has calculated that their average client will save over $41k of their retirement just in fees.

After the analysis, you can choose to DIY or have blooom manage your 401k for you. This doesn’t require that you move your 401k, you leave it right where it is. For a flat fee of $10 a month, blooom will manage, monitor, adjust, or tweak your account as the market changes and as you get closer to retirement. 

That $10 a month fee will also get you access to a blooom advisor to answer any questions you may have.

What makes a millionaire

The last bit of financial advice Chris wants to leave with SavingsAngel fans was what makes a millionaire.

While working with clients that retired as millionaires he noticed that they did not accumulate their money by:

1- being super high-income earners

2- being business owners that sold a business

3- inheriting their money

4- winning the lottery

The common thread with all of these clients is that they spent less than they made. And the difference was socked away. When you live your life that way, you can get to the point of being a millionaire.

Anytime consumers can have more awareness and clarity of what’s going on with their spending and where their money is going, I’m a fan. And blooom has made me a big fan. My hope is that it will do the same for you!

My thanks go to Chris Costello and blooom.com for being a sponsor of SavingsAngel.com.