Anne Tergesen

speaker

4,485 appearances 83 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2017 last heard Feb 2025

Anne Tergesen’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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WSJ Your Money Briefing · Why You Shouldn’t Check Your 401(k) During a Bull Market · 22 Jun 2023 podcast

They can track if you come in through the phone, if you come in and you check on your computer, and if you check on mobile. voice-verified

There are a couple different ways that people access their accounts, and yes, they can track that. voice-verified

When people check very often, they can subsequently engage in suboptimal behaviors. voice-verified

There are academic studies that show that the more people look at their 401ks, the lower their long-term returns are likely to be. voice-verified

And there are some pretty influential seminal studies that have shown that, in fact, that's the case. voice-verified

Well, it depends. voice-verified

But during a bull market, people who check often perhaps feel wealthier. voice-verified

And even though that money is locked up in an account that's for retirement, psychologically, you feel wealthier. voice-verified

So you might be more likely to just spend more money, which can lead to lower savings rates. voice-verified

There's also the effect of if you look and you see that stocks are doing well, it can encourage people to really raise their asset allocation towards stocks, to become more heavily exposed to stocks. voice-verified

And that's fine, except that if we have like a sell-off that comes along or a bear market— voice-verified

then going into it, you're sort of overexposed to stocks, which can magnify your losses. voice-verified

During a bear market, the opposite can happen, where people who check too often get concerned because they see negative numbers, they see their balance going down, and those people can start to feel maybe overly nervous about holding stocks, so they'll back away from stocks and they'll sell their stocks at a time when prices are down, which is not what you want to do. voice-verified

So you want to be selling when prices are up. voice-verified

It just encourages counterproductive buying and selling activity. voice-verified

There is data that shows that people who check on mobile devices check more often. voice-verified

It's just easier, right? voice-verified

I mean, you sort of almost mindlessly do all sorts of activities on your phone. voice-verified

So if checking your 401k balance is among them, then it just means that that's going to be something that you're doing more often. voice-verified

And the data shows that people who check more often tend to have lower returns. voice-verified

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