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Sunday, May 05, 2013
36 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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how do we find out what fees we are paying in our 401K accounts?
ReplyDeleteIf you mean you individually, you don't. Like most here, you have no idea how benefits work.
DeleteSo you won't know. Efforts to educate you will fail. You are absolutely at the whim of what people decide for you. Better hope they do things right.
Hey 12:13 p.m.:
DeleteI don't know much about fees, but I do know one thing: You do not want Gannett stock. Having Gannett stock in your 401K is like having cancer in your drinking water. I repeat: You do not want Gannett stock. On the Monday after payday I call the 401K people and tell them to move my Gannett stock to another fund. For some reason, The Powers that Be always try to sneak Gannett stock into my 401K.
This method works and there are no transfer fees. The 401K by far is your best retirement savings vehicle. Max out your contributions if you can. And again, do not let Gannett stock into your 401K!!!!!!!!!!
12:13 Excellent question! The answer depends on whether the 401(k) plan offers any publicly available mutual funds -- I.e., funds managed by companies like Fidelity and Vanguard that non- Gannett employees can also buy.
DeleteIf so, you can find information about any fees charged at least by those funds by looking online at what is called their prospectus.
Corporate should disclose all fees, however, including in proprietary funds.
For more information related to your very smart question, see the recent Frontline TV program episode on this very subject.
I don't know Gannett's current 401(k) options. But when I was with the company, you could establish a brokerage account within your IRA.
You'd transfer cash into it from elsewhere with your 401(k), then invest in any mutual fund and even individual common stocks, I recall.
As I recall 2:45 they do charge a transaction fee for selling the Gannett stock. It is still wise to redistribute it if it as it becomes a larger percentage of your portfolio.
Delete1:31 -- Instead of being a jerk, why not give a simple answer to a polite question? Oh, wait. I know. It's because you're a jerk.
ReplyDeleteFor 12:13, go to the web site and browse through the documentation, generally in PDF form. Gannett's 401(k) paid $2.7 million in administrative fees last year, which 1:31 would have told you if he weren't a big weenie. Plan assets were about $1.6 billion -- another detail 1:31 could have told you, except that he's a mouth breather.
You can also get fund expenses on the site, also in PDF form. It's under "documents and forms" on the site. 1:31 could have helped you there, too, but he probably had his finger up his nose to the third knuckle.
It is amazing that people actually pose employment questions here rather than simply going to the intranet, benefits site or calling HR. You have to wonder how some people manage to navigate life.
ReplyDelete2:45 PM - LOL. Those diabolical fiends who "try to sneak Gannett stock into my 401K" are matching your contribution. It's part of your pay.
3:06 PM - Even when a retail fund is offered in a 401(k) the fee structure can be different, so you can't rely on external disclosures (although the 401(k) should be favorable).
Yeah. 2:45's post was good for a laugh and not much else. 4:06 -- easy there, tough guy. 4:36's post covers it. Why ask the same questions here again and again? Laziness? Stupidity? Fear of asking someone who might actually know? All of the above?
Delete5:09 -- Telling time is hard! 4:06 covered it before 4:36, and did it better. And you have no way of knowing that the person has ever posted here before, big fella. Why not answer a civil question with a modicum of civility?
ReplyDelete4:36 -- He wasn't complaining about the match. He was complaining about the match being in company stock. And he gave good advice: You should shovel the stock out of your portfolio periodically, even if you're a true believer. Put the proceeds into a diversified fund. No one should have more than 10% of his portfolio in Gannett stock, even if they are true believers.
You are either new or clueless. As 4:36 said, people frequently post employment questions here, and most of them can be answered elsewhere.
DeleteWhat should the company match be in? Cattle? Feathers? Of course it will be in company stock. The only other reasonable option is to add to a money market account. I would be curious as to whether any other company does that or if it is even allowed as a match.
You did get one thing right. 4:06 did post before 4:36. Way to pick up on that! Not sure why you are pointing this out, but take a tiny gold star for yourself.
5:52 -- You may have heard of this thing called "cash." Many companies add that, rather than stock. Seriously, you have no place criticizing others: You have no clue about what you're talking about.
DeleteAnd go re-read your post, and you might get an itty bitty clue about the importance of the timing of the two posts. But honestly, you probably won't.
The timing was that 4:36 picked up on the cluelessness of people asking about things they could get more information on somewhere else.
DeleteIt would have been great for that post to come earlier, but we take what we can get.
In regard to who knows what, I think you would come out on the losing end. I mentioned the money market account as an option. In this case, though, Gannett issues stock, so it's sort of pointless to debate the other options. I tried to be diplomatic about it, but your response is the usual course of business here -- being dumb, listening to no one else, and staying dumb. That's why the same dumb questions pop up here again and again.
Point of not keeping the GCI match - is that you've already loaded your finances with GCI. Like me - all in compensation is $200K. My frozen pension is $300K. I've got enough reliance on GCI. Take the match and dump it. Two weeks later, repeat.
ReplyDeleteSo you don't even try to earn small gains? More bad advice.
DeleteHere's how to look at this decision: If you didn't work for Gannett, would you buy the company's stock?
DeleteThat's dumb, Jim. If someone matched my contribution with stock, I would do far better than mindlessly dumping it at every opportunity.
DeleteNo, 8:04, it's not dumb at all. The company matches 50 cents on the dollar with stock. That's a big bet on any company, 8:04. You want Gannett stock? Fine. But you're the dumb one if you keep that much of your portfolio in company stock. Ask the people at Enron, or MCI, or any number of other companies that have had their stock go to zero. (I don't think Gannett will, but it could easily go to $10.)
DeleteActually, since the pension was terminated match has been 100%, capped at 5%.
DeletePeople ask for simple advice and have questions from people in the same situation and instead of giving simple terms answers,the remarks are rude.
ReplyDeleteTypical Gannett employees...insecure, always afraid,low morale ,and completely stressed out,therefore ready to snap and also ready to pounce on someone to make them feel worse than they themselves do.
Very typical of low self esteem, I am better than you and I am smarter than you,and I will be a jerk to you whenever I feel like it,nose in the air attitude. Class,real class.
7:13, it doesn't take much sense to be smarter than them. Or you. Or Jim.
DeleteI laugh at your mention of class, given that you are the one who used to come in here urging people to quit.
8:05 -- Oh, no. We're all laughing at you, you pathetic little toadie.
DeleteLike I said, doesn't take much sense to be smarter than some here. Great try at a comeback, though.
DeleteWhy would employees that work for a private single copy distribution company be driving the papers vehicles, with the papers name on them and phone number?
ReplyDeleteAre you sure they are the paper's vehicles? Most likely some agreement then between the paper and co. Either way, the drivers, which I would bet are called independent contractors by the dist. co., are NOT IC's since they are provided the vehicles. Only other option is it's the driver's vehicles and the dist. co. makes them put the paper's info on them.
DeleteThey are definitely company owned trucks. Don't know why Papers didn't sell them when they brought in the private distributor. I would think that one reason for bringing in the distributor was to reduce cost of keeping and maintaining vehicles. Instead it appears they only wanted to reduce number of company employees.
DeleteHi, Jim. Are you going to post of a list of USAT buyout takers if/when their departures become public knowledge? Richard Price's column named three of five minority staffers whom he confirmed: Geri Coleman Tucker, deputy managing editor; Robert Robinson, deputy managing editor/copy editors; and reporter Larry Bivins of Gannett News Service.
ReplyDeletehttp://mije.org/richardprince/boston-suspects-darkened-magazine-cover#USAToday
You refer to Price, but your own URL that you posted says Prince.
DeleteGood luck with the rest of your request. I think you'd have better luck waiting for the names to become public and then compiling them yourself.
Craig Wilson is taking the buy out -loved his column on Wednesday's
DeleteBites for the folks at the DM Register to have their Publisher bail on them in the middle of an office move. Not a small task with a leader....let alone without one.
ReplyDeleteWhat would Jesus do?
ReplyDeleteGot my first look at Callaway's new toy at Usa Today; the enlarged Hub. Looks like a cheap ripoff of old Starship Enterprise's bridge.
DeleteWhat a fucking waste of money and office space.
Of course you hate it. Was there ever a doubt? And yet you stay because no one else we pay you the "waste if money" DC pays YOU
Delete6:33, I am taking the buyout. But tell me what does this actually have to do with improving the quality of journalism? Oh, I forgot, you Hub people dont actually have any experience in that. Your idea of reporting is googling and your experience in writing is ripping off other sources.
DeleteEnjoy the shiny new TV sets while you can!
Someone asked earlier why people post Gannett HR and employment questions here rather than "just going to the website or calling HR."
ReplyDeleteOh, so naive! I will tell you why.
When I was with Gannett, I once called corporate offices with an HR/benefits question. One that no one locally could answer. The folks in the Crystal Palace were not unpleasant or rude or anything, but were not helpful either.
BUT - about an hour after the call, my weasel publisher walked in and wanted to know why I was calling corporate offices. I guess someone there called his group publisher who called him.
The message - stop asking questions!
Years ago, I recall a Gannett Blog reader who said a supervisor discouraged her questions about whether she could sell the Gannett shares given to her as a company match in the 401(k) plan.
Delete(The answer, by the way: yes.)
11:20 AM - Sorry, that's BS. Same principle applies — namely, common sense. Did the local HR rep flatly REFUSE to get you an answer? (Really?) If they did, then your recourse (back in the day when HR reported locally) would have been up the local chain of command, then the group. If you were upbraided by the publisher it was for a lack of common sense that made her/his site look chaotic.
ReplyDeleteNow that HR is a centralized service organization unto itself with a help desk and web sites, it's much simpler, and there really is no excuse for trying to work around them.
11:27 AM - Unfortunately you can't believe everything someone tells you. There's been at least an 800 number for as long as there's been a 401(k). Even if you think the service was sub-par, the fact is an employee with moderate common sense could get an answer to that question.