Why You Shouldn’t Check Your 401(k) During a Bull Market
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your Money Briefing for Thursday, June 22nd. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal.
Why do financial experts warn against checking your 401(k) during a bull market?
The S&P 500 reentering a bull market earlier this month might encourage some people to check their 401K balances more frequently. But financial experts say that's not a good idea.
People who check often perhaps feel wealthier. And even though that money is locked up in an account that's for retirement, psychologically, you feel wealthier. So you might be more likely to just spend more money, which can lead to lower savings rates.
Wall Street Journal reporter Ann Turgason will join us to discuss what savers can do besides checking their balances to potentially boost their portfolio. After the break.
Financial apps make it easy to quickly log in and check your 401k balance. Wall Street Journal reporter Ann Tergesen is here to tell us why financial experts say checking too often could hurt your retirement portfolio long term. So Ann, why are people so eager to check their 401ks right now?
After having been in a bear market, there's a certain excitement to a bull market. You know, you get sort of a dopamine hit when you look at your 401k balance as opposed to, you know, during a bear market where you log on and you're probably pretty nervous.
What emotions drive people to check their 401(k) more often in a bull market?
It's a different set of emotions. It's a much more positive set of emotions.
This is a real rush.
I think there probably can be, you know, depending on the person, but yes.
So how do these frequent check-ins now compare to how often investors check their balances when the markets weren't riding so high?
So Vanguard has some interesting data. They serve as an administrator for millions of 401k participants out there. And according to their data, a little over 60% of participants checked their accounts in 2022, and that's when the S&P was in a bear market. But in contrast, when we were in a bull market in 2019, 2020, and 2021, the percentages checking were closer to 70%. So it's not a huge difference, but it's notable.
How much more frequently do investors check accounts in bull vs. bear markets?
And they know when people are checking their balances.
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. There are a couple different ways that people access their accounts, and yes, they can track that.
So what's the harm in logging in and checking your balances? You spoke to behavioral economists. Why do they advise against checking balances so frequently, especially in a bull market?
When people check very often, they can subsequently engage in suboptimal behaviors. There are academic studies that show that the more people look at their 401ks, the lower their long-term returns are likely to be. And there are some pretty influential seminal studies that have shown that, in fact, that's the case.
What's that connection between checking and then lower long-term results?
Well, it depends. But during a bull market, people who check often perhaps feel wealthier. And even though that money is locked up in an account that's for retirement, psychologically, you feel wealthier. So you might be more likely to just spend more money, which can lead to lower savings rates. 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.
What behavioral research links frequent checking to lower long‑term returns?
And that's fine, except that if we have like a sell-off that comes along or a bear market— then going into it, you're sort of overexposed to stocks, which can magnify your losses. 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. So you want to be selling when prices are up. It just encourages counterproductive buying and selling activity.
A moment ago, you mentioned checking your balances on your phone or a mobile device.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:10
2
Why do financial experts warn against checking your 401(k) during a bull market?
0:10–1:33
3
What emotions drive people to check their 401(k) more often in a bull market?
1:33–2:17
4
How much more frequently do investors check accounts in bull vs. bear markets?
2:17–3:35
5
What behavioral research links frequent checking to lower long‑term returns?
3:35–5:29
6
How does mobile access increase the temptation to check and harm outcomes?
5:29–6:16
7
How often should you realistically check your 401(k) according to experts?
6:16–7:25
8
What practical alternatives reduce anxiety and improve retirement outcomes?
7:25–7:38
Speakers
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