[Alberta's Child]

ABC's GMA interviewed a 21 year employee of Enron this morning. He lost nearly all of his 401K ... valued at nearly $500 thousand at one point ... now just a few thousand dollars.

This 21-year employee is a moron. Nobody with any financial sense would have almost their entire 401(k) account invested in one company. In fact, a good financial planner will tell you that you should NEVER invest more than a token amount of money in your employer if it is a publicly-traded company.

[getsoutalive]

The company only gave 401k matching contributions in the form of company stock and participants were not permitted to sell until they had reached age 50.

[lewislynn]

This 21-year employee is a moron. Nobody with any financial sense would have almost their entire 401(k) account invested in one company.

You're right, the fact he was duped by his own 21 year company then wasn't allowed to sell his shares when the upper mangement was bailing out is all his fault...

But I wonder if your response would have been the same if the article was about Clinton/Enron rather than Bush/Enron....just wondering.

[ignatz_q]

This 21-year employee is a moron. Nobody with any financial sense would have almost their entire 401(k) account invested in one company. In fact, a good financial planner will tell you that you should NEVER invest more than a token amount of money in your employer if it is a publicly-traded company.

Maybe, maybe not. I don't know what Enron's policies were, but it is increasingly common for companies that subsidize 401(k) plans to REQUIRE that a significant portion of the money be invested in the stock of their own companies. This is an artificial way of bolstering stock prices, and what happened at Enron may be an example of why this is such an intellectually (and morally) bankrupt idea.