Twenty-four percent of participants in small 401(k) plans have balances of zero.

It seems like every New Years resolution boils down to needing more money, so maybe I should just resolve to make more. If youre a health insurance broker, you can try making more by throwing your lot in with one of the top paying health carriers.

In 2009, more than 7,500 401(k) plans were terminated in the large plan market, forever doomed to carry cash boxes and locks tied to chains around their ghastly visages for eternity.

Small businesses seem to be the ones most willing to give back to the community and their employees, and by not supporting them were not really paying forward that generosity. Just look at 401(k) contributions.

401(k) plans have plenty of investment vehicles in which to allocate their funds: equities, trusts, government securities. Its interesting to see how the money flows around between these different options.

Last week we looked at the variance in the adoption of 401(k) plans by industry. Keep in mind that this study only looked at the large plan market. I wanted to see if the pattern holds true when we look at smaller plans (2-99 participants):

According to a survey conducted by the FreeERISA data team, some industries lag in their adoption of the 401(k) plan as their primary retirement benefit.

Any time youre dealing with millions of data points, youre bound to find some outliers. The Warren Buffets of household income, the Yao Mings of adult height, the Beatles. Its where we find the exceptional, the interesting, and the weird.