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Those who have been working for a long time must have noticed that many companies have improved on their employee retirement plans. Some would even say that employers have become more generous towards employee retirement plans.

But the situation is not the same throughout the companies. There are a lot of employees who are still suffering from rotten retirement plans that do not have potential to earn as much as possible if invested otherwise.

Take a closer look and you will find a lot of 401(k) plans where the companies are sticking to mutual funds that are low in performance. And to add to the employee misery, they often require higher amount of fees.

However, your situation is as worst as the above; it does not mean that you cannot do anything to change it. If you have enough ideas on different retirement investment plans, you can improve a lot on the situation. However, if you are not sure enough about it, you can always find a retirement advisor to offer you a customized solution for high yield investments.

However, before you go on to the next paragraph, let's take a look at a general situation:

How much does your company contribute towards your 401(k) plan? Normally it is 50% of your own contribution. However, in many cases, company offers up to 100% of an employee's contribution towards 401(K) plan. Just to point out, the amount that the company contributes towards a 401(k) plan is around 4 to 6% of your pay (but in most of the cases companies do not match more than 3% of your pay).

And ask yourself a question. Are you really taking the initiative to know how your funds are performing? You can always ask your plan administrator to get a complete picture on how your funds are performing. Otherwise, there are a lot of agencies in the market that can offer you a regular update.

So what options do you have to improve your situation?

Find out if your plan offers you the option of an index fund. Research shows that more than 90% of the companies offer this option in their 401 (k) plan. These funds are cheaper and offer moderate value for money. At the same time market trend shows that these funds are great at long term performance. Just take the initiative to talk to the plan administrator and invest some amount at these index funds.

You can also look forward to invest in a lifestyle fund. This option would allow you to maintain the fund in such a way that the risk factors would be reduced and your fund would become more conservative as you approach retirement date. This is a good option if you need to solely depend on your retirement savings to live the after retirement life.

However before investing in a fund for longer period, you must do critical studies on its historical performance. There are some funds that just cropped up from no where and shows great potentials - history says they often crack down faster than steady movers. And it all depends on how much risk you can afford to take.

Break the funds and invest some of the amount at self directed IRA. This is the best way to keep your retirement savings work for you to earn more. A lot of people invest in real estate market or even start up a company with their self directed IRAs for security and growth.

The only way to get the most out of any retirement solution is to take the best step forward on time. And you can take the best step when you have enough knowledge about it. So go ahead and know your options.

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