Showerthought: I finally checked what my 401k was actually charging me and it was $840 a year in fees

Fiona Ward · 2026-10-31T21:30:05.000001+00:00

I sat down with my mom's old kitchen table calculator on Sunday night and went line by line through my 401k statement from work. Turns out the fund my money got dumped into by default had a fee of about 0.9% a year, which comes out to $840 on a $93,000 balance. I moved it into a basic index fund in the same plan with a 0.04% fee, and it took me maybe 20 minutes on the phone with HR down in Tampa. That $840 was just quietly leaving my account, no bill, no email, nothing to remind me it was happening. Has anyone else actually sat down and priced out their plan like this? I want to know if 0.9% is normal or if my plan is just bad.

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Showerthought: I finally checked what my 401k was actually charging me and it was $840 a year in fees | Broke to Boss Money Talk - Rigidtalk