From the very beginning, the Compass Investors’ HORIZON™ model was designed to improve upon strategies based upon theories that ignore the real conditions of the market. The retirement investment de facto standard, the Target Date Fund, whose best return rate tops out around 7%, is a good example of this sort of strategy—where the fund’s composition of stocks and bonds depends not on what’s actually happening in the market but on the anticipated retirement age of the investor.
Unfortunately, research has demonstrated how difficult it is for the majority of workers for whom their 401(k) is their major, or only, source of retirement income to achieve any real financial security with the kinds of return rates available from even the best Target Date Funds. While contributing greater amounts to our retirement accounts (or even compromising a bit on our lifestyle in retirement) can help, nothing will help us accumulate more reasonable balances than increasing our rates of return. This brings us to back to our sports analogy, and the great advantage of keeping our best players in the game.
The purpose of the HORIZON™ service is precisely to identify those funds available to investors that are poised to perform best—to find the Jordans, the Gretskys, the Gehrigs of your portfolio. While our regular publishing schedule may or may not land our subscribers at the very beginning of a fund’s star season, or identify the absolute peak of that fund, when it should be “traded,” our strategy of regular analysis to determine your best “players” at all times during your investing career gives you the best chance of long-term success. And of obtaining the championship that can await you in retirement!
If an active 401(k) investing approach such as HORIZON™ is not yet available at your company, please contact us to learn how to incorporate such an alternative into your overall retirement saving strategy.