Tip of the Week: Heavy on the Stocks (10/18/99)

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	Heavy on the Stocks Financial Tip of the Week by Deloitte & Touche OnLine October 18, 1999

Are your retirement savings in stocks? If so, you're not alone.

See our archive of previous tips on your money, your taxes and your financial plan.

Investors saving for retirement through 401(k)s and similar savings plans have been contributing more to stocks and less to safer investments in recent years, according to the Spectrem Group in San Francisco.

In a survey of 2,000 households Spectrem found retirement savers earmarked 75.7 percent of their 1998 contributions for the purchase of equities, an increase from 64.4 percent in 1994. Allocations to bonds fell to 7.2 percent from 8.5 percent in 1994 while allocations to stable-value funds, which often offer low but consistent returns, fell to 9.3 percent from 17.8 percent.

In addition, Spectrem found investors are socking their savings in a growing number of investments – an average of 8.4 last year relative to 4.6 in 1994. Finally, the accounts were richer. The mean account balance grew to $40,740 in 1998 from $31,400 in 1994.

Spectrem estimates that 28 million Americans had $1.14 trillion invested in 401(k) programs in 1998 and that 283,000 companies were offering the plans.