Bucks: How You Use Your 401(k) Brokerage Window

In this weekend’s Your Money column, I suggest that people who are unhappy with the investment options that their employer offers on the menu in their 401(k) or similar plan put in a request for something called a brokerage or mutual fund window.

Also known as a self-directed plan, this allows people to go beyond the 10 or 20 options that an employer has chosen and select from thousands of other mutual or exchange-traded funds. Sometimes, people can invest in individual stocks and other securities, too.

For those of you who already have access to this option, are you using it? If so, what are you using it for? And what does it cost you?

And by all means, if you think that I’m dead wrong and that nobody should be able to fling open the window like this, please explain why in the comments below.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e489ceae8207795ef3adf432b58b0b0f