Your 401K: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Your 401k: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
The American economic engine is the greatest wealth producing machine the world has ever known. In 1950 the US Gross Domestic Product was $3.1 billion. In 2025, it was $30 trillion: A 4,000 percent increase.
The stock market allows ordinary Americans to participate in the growth of the great American economic engine. In 1950, the total value of the US stock market was $4.3 billion and less than 3% of the American public owned stock. Today, the total value of the US stock market is $70 trillion and 61% of individual Americans public own stocks.
The exponential growth in stock ownership by the American public started in 1975 with the introduction of the 401k program. This program allows workers to deduct a portion of their wages and invest in a tax-sheltered retirement account.
The magnitude of today’s 401k program is staggering. There are over 90 million plan participants, who own a total of $12 trillion in assets. There is an additional 30 million Americans who have retired and rolled their assets over into an IRA, bringing the total value of the program to over $35 trillion. Last year, these assets produced an additional $3.8 trillion in wealth for the American public.
A 401k ACCOUNT IS AN INVESTMENT ACCOUNT, NOT A SAVINGS ACCOUNT. THOSE WHO MANAGE THEIR 401k WISELY, GET THE BIGGEST SLICE OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC PIE.
The mission of Wall Street for Dummies is to educate 401(k) plan participants on the unique features of the plan and help them build and maintain an investment program that fits their individual temperament and skills. I have a 62-year relationship with the stock market. I have been a stockbroker, finance professor and individual investor. For the past fifteen years I have conducted my professional efforts as a free-lance 401(k) guru. I have no investment products to sell. All I to offer are the objective observations of one who has been there and done that.
