Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was in top form last night, opening with Oliver’s emotional statement about the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and ending with an informative look at retirement planning, capped off with a helpful PSA from Billy Eichner and Kristin Chenoweth starting at the 18:15 mark in the video above.
The interest in retirement plans was personal for the Last Week Tonight staff, as they found themselves in a confusing and infuriating situation when they tried to set up their own employee 401(k) plans. They were being hit with unreasonable fees for an actively-managed fund, even though actively-managed funds historically underperform low-fee index funds.
So Eichner provides a summary of what you can do, similar to how all the financial advice you need can fit on an index card. Since anyone can call themselves a financial advisor, a wealth manager, a financial analyst, etc., he recommends finding someone who is actually a “fiduciary,” meaning he or she commits to the Fiduciary Standard and has to act in your best interest. For most people, low-fee index funds are all you need, checking them about as often as you google whether or not Gene Hackman is still alive. (So once a year, and he is!) Shift from stocks to bonds as you age to make the portfolio more conservative as you near retirement; Eichner offers a hint for how to remember that, although you could just go with a low-fee target date fund and let them deal with it.
And now that you know so much about retirement planning, you can print your own Financial Advisor Certificate and start advising. You can also print out this Elf-Spotting Certificate, a theoretical $4,000 value. Now let’s go spot some elves.
