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Table 10

Frequency of Asset Allocation Changes Allowed to Participants in 401(k)s (%)

Period

1990

1995

1997

Daily

8

38

61

Monthly

7

13

12

Quarterly

27

30

19

Semiannually

21

3

2

Annually

19

15

3

Other

18

1

3

Source: Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America.

The best indica-

neers of worker capitalism had hoped. By

lies than noninvestors. The percentage of

tor of the grow-

margins of 48 to 6 percent, shareholders told

American adults who are wed is 59.7. The per-

Nasdaq researchers that they invested for

centage of married stockholders is 70.4

ing relevance of

according to a Rasmussen Research poll,4 9 71

"growth in value over time" rather than for

computers to the

"regular dividend income."47

according to ICI,5 0 and 82 according to the

New York Stock Exchange.5 1

consumer market

Two recent surveys invited investors to

identify the concerns that brought them to

These worker-owners' increasingly long-

for corporate

the market. The ICI poll of mutual-fund

term orientation has led them to question

shares is not in

shareholders reported these priorities: 84 per-

the wisdom of reliance on government sys-

cent invested for supplementary retirement

tems of social insurance. When EBRI in 1996

the sketchy con-

income, 26 percent to pay for education

asked workers to list sources of retirement

sumer data but in

expenses, 9 percent to supplement current

income they regarded as "major" or "most

the growth of

living expenses, and 7 percent to buy a home

important," Social Security barely beat out

or other real estate.4 8

postretirement employment. Sixty-one per-

Web services

cent listed work-based defined contribution

Investors interviewed by Peter D. Hart

among broker-

plans; 56 percent listed other personal sav-

Research Associates for Nasdaq listed similar

ings or investments; 50 percent listed money

priorities: 89 percent invested for retirement

ages.

an employer put in a pension plan; 26 per-

security, 28 percent to pay for a child's educa-

cent listed Social Security; and 25 percent

tion, 18 percent to afford major purchases

listed post-retirement work.

such as a new car, 13 percent to be able to

And they are doing something about the

support a parent or elderly relative, 10 per-

situation. From 1989 to 1995, the percentage

cent to start a business, 10 percent to buy a

of heads of households below age 35 who

home, and 5 percent to finance their own

owned stock increased 64 percent. "[P]eople

education.

aged 45 to 64 report that they first began to

The goal of contemporary investors, in

prepare for retirement at age 35," reported

short, is to finance the major expenses that

the PSCA, "while those aged 25 to 44 say that

can be expected to occur at discrete points

they first began to prepare at age 26."5 2

during a normal life cycle: for example, the

purchase of a home, a child's education, a

Poterba, Venti, and Wise present further

parent's medical bills, and, above all, retire-

evidence of the aggressive participation of the

ment. Investors are planning for their fami-

youngest cohort of investors in retirement

lies. And they are more likely to live in fami-

planning, as shown in Table 11.

17