Tomlin's call, 401k mistakes

Some random thoughts for a calm market Monday, after the frantic Friday.

Adam Warner breaks down odds the way option traders often do, for Steeler's coach Mike Tomlin's call against the Jets (link1).
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So you’re the Steelers, you have the ball on the Jets 40 yard line, and a 5 point lead . There’s two minutes left, and the Jets have no timeouts. What do you do? ...

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Roger Nusbaum cites a Barrons article about how poorly most Americans are preparing for retirement (link2).
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... people are often their own worst enemy when it comes to their finances and portfolios for things related to poor spending decisions and occasional panic selling or panic buying.
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This is something I write about often. In theory, with hindsight, any person can pick tops and bottoms and imagine the vast returns that might have been. In reality, the average punter makes bad decisions, often very bad decisions.

On the Internet, you will mostly read reports about profits. Some reports are real, from exceptionally talented (or lucky) traders, the top 1% or 5%. Some are selective memory (mis-remembering so a 10% return becomes 30% when the story is told). Some are hindsight traders that only report their winners, and only after the trade is done, never in real time, so they never have to report a loss. A few are liars, fabricating their entire story. Understand the nature of reporting when reading message boards, so you don't feel left out. Exceptional returns are exceptional, but if a person only reads investment boards, you'd think everyone makes big money.

That's why, for the average investor (not trader), I have always suggested that being average is a fine thing. Getting an average price when buying or selling, seeking an age appropriate asset allocation as far as strategy. That kind of averageness, especially for those searching around for advice, tends to be better than making drastic all-in, all-out decisions that get the attention.