Your mission: Open the 401(k) floodgate

I’m lucky enough not only to be a journalist and writer, but, for more than 30 years I’ve also been a full-time practitioner in the fields I write about. So it shouldn’t surprise you that I regularly speak to plan sponsors, plan investors and their various forms of investors. There’s one thing all these experienced people agree on: The most important element to achieving retirement success is to simply start saving.

Ironically, this is also the hardest thing for people to do. Not to save, but to start saving. Once an investor gets started, the process develops its own momentum. Fortunately, there are so many lists to help 401(k) investors get started (here’s one: “7 Simple Saving Secrets Every 401k Investor Should Know,” FiduciaryNews.com, Feb. 5, 2013). But what’s totally amazing is this: It works.