401,000 scrooges

It was a long and winding road to change my 401k employee contributions from the Observer-Reporter's account to my personal investment portfolio. With no one left at the newspaper to help me figure out how to transfer the money properly, it took about six months to finally complete the process.

Then I received an update of my portfolio, only to find that I had lost more than $1,000 from the account. Was it taxes or fees or a miscalculation? None of the above.

Instead, it was the O-R's share of the 401k because I wasn't fully vested with the program. I had been with the newspaper for nearly three years, so I can only assume that I earned only 50 percent of the money (it takes four years to become fully vested). This was not a decision I made. This was a decision the Observer-Reporter made to release me and the 401k obligations. They should be ashamed for withdrawing this money, and I urge them to restore our full 401k contributions to 100 percent.

Because while I was putting my money into the market and trying to plan for that retirement years away, the Observer-Reporter was making dividends off my contributions. I hope they'll be able to buy plenty of new laptop computers and/or coffee machines with my money. Enjoy it.