Newspaper Article

INVESTING / Avoid Temptation to Tap Retirement Funds

Kathy M. Kristof. Kathy M. Kristof writes for the Los Angeles Times

1998

Overview

Rising employment, a strong economy and a red-hot stock market have combined to vastly boost confidence about Americans' personal finances, according to Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co., a New York-based concern that does an annual \"fiscal fitness\" survey. Asked about their biggest financial concern over the next five years, 22 percent of Americans responded \"none.\" Nearly nine out of 10 people surveyed were optimistic about their financial futures, while four in 10 call themselves \"very optimistic.\" All those responses were significantly rosier than they were a year ago - and far more optimistic than they were in 1996. \"I can understand why people are feeling flush - the money they have in their 401(k) plans has grown rapidly, probably much more rapidly than they ever were told it would. So they're thinking, `Hey, I'm ahead of schedule. I can afford to tap some of this money,' \" says Paul Yakobowski, an analyst at the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C. \"But this could be false confidence.\"

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