Netflix & Bold Retirement Decisions
/I hope this Wednesday morning finds you well. Boy, I have some goodies in store for you…
Keep Watch I have been following what’s been happening at Netflix ever since I got a subscription years ago. Truth be told – I’m a House of Cards and Orange is the New Black junkie. I wrote about “cord cutting” in favor of streaming services like Netflix earlier this year, so take a look if you missed it. The stock is up 19% this year and it’s continued to pique my interest as I always have my investor hat on.
Well, Netflix’s recent company results highlight an issue that most innovative companies deal with at some point in their lifecycle – how does the company continue to grow profitably? At Netflix, they can either grow subscribers or prices, both of which drive revenue. Recently, their subscriber growth has slowed and the cost of producing original content has gone up. While profits beat expectations this quarter, Netflix said that profits will take a hit next quarter.
So, you might be asking yourself – can I make money over the long-term by investing in Netflix’s stock at this time?
Whether it’s Netflix or some other company, I am going to help you answer that question. Next week. Please stay tuned.
Charisse Says Member Bold Question Given that this is still the year of boldness, I want to share a recent bold question that I received from your fellow Charisse Says community member. I’ve gotten this question plenty of times before and so now it’s time to answer.
In what cases should I keep 2 or more 401k accounts (holding my money) sitting with previous employers instead of combining them?
I’ll provide 2 cases for you to ponder:
The investment options in your previous 401k plan are better – more options and/or lower fees. I left JPMorgan almost 10 years ago but I’ve kept my 401k assets on their retirement platform because of the plethora of investment fund options. Also, many of the funds have fees less than 0.20%. Now, this fee structure is lower than average because JPMorgan manages a lot of the funds itself, unlike other employers who have to outsource the funds.
You can live with checking two or more different accounts – Most people think it’s a headache to check multiple 401k accounts. Not me, especially if case 1 holds true. Mathematically, if the funds are earning a similar return but in two different places, the performance will be similar. For instance, if you have $100K in one account and $10K in another, and both options return 10%, the $100K account will generate a return of $10k and the $10k will generate a return of $1K, giving you $121K across both accounts. If you have both of these in the same account, or $110K, and it returns 10%, your new total is also $121K.
The problem only rises if one 401k plan is doing better than the other consistently. Also, if you have multiple 401k plans in different places, you often may forget to look at your accounts holistically to manage diversification.
So, consider these two cases when evaluating whether you should keep separate 401k accounts with previous employers, or not.
Do you have other questions?
