Fidelity Investments plans to allow investors to put a bitcoin account in their 401(k)s, the first major retirement-plan provider to do so.
Employees won’t be able to start adding cryptocurrencies to their nest eggs right away, but later this year, the 23,000 companies that use Fidelity to administer their retirement plans will have the option to put bitcoin on the menu. The endorsement of the nation’s largest retirement-plan provider suggests crypto investing is moving further into the mainstream, but it remains to be seen whether employers will embrace it for their workers.
Fidelity to Allow Retirement Savers to Put Bitcoin in 401(k) Accounts
A world-grade train wreck looking for a time and place to happen. Just what is needed for retirement planning: One of the most volatile vehicles to come down the tracks for a long time.
Charles Ponzi would be excitedly jumping and yipping like an over sexed hyper Chihuahua were he still around.
On one hand, I think that cryptocurrency is a Ponzi scheme and personally wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole. On the other hand, it is a legitimate investment even if it may not hold its value – much like dot-com stocks in 1999 which we would all agree were legitimate investments.
Is it wise to keep highly risky investments in a 401(k) or other retirement account? Many investors accept high risk/ high potential gain/loss investments and are allowed to keep them in retirement accounts. I wouldn’t do it myself, but my risk tolerance is lower.
I admit that I don’t fully understand block chain or why that is a good way to store money. I don’t seem the point in another fiat currency that doesn’t even have an army or police force backing it up. But it seems to me that the Bitcoin transactions are basically just a service like PayPal or a debit card, only with a lot of volatility thrown in.
Anyhow, I would not accept Bitcoin or Dogecoin or any of the crypto currencies as a salary, if I had a salary, which I don’t.
This whole question reminds me of a time when my Dad’s weekly pay was paid in silver dollars as some kind of stunt. If we had held onto the silver dollars they would have increased in value–but we needed the cash, so into the bank account they went at face value.