I've been in the retirement plan industry for 20 years.

Saw an employee generate $60,000 of commissions on their account.

I was a service rep fielding inbound participant calls on a large 401(k) plan.

Mutual funds could be purchased with no load and company stock was $0.07/share commission.

The plan allowed for self-directed brokerage as well, where a participant could trade on their own.

$10 per trade; buy or sell.

No advice was provided on the self-directed trading.

It was the wild west.

Here is what happened to this participant account...

Number of trades = 6,000

Commissions charged on account = $60,000

Account value = $30,000

I never looked deeper into the buy high sell low strategy this person developed for themselves, but there were good lessons for me to learn in my early 20's.

First, don't wing it.

Second, work with a specialist, in this case a Financial Advisor.

Not only for retirement funds, but for your whole financial life.

It's likely that participant who owned the account in the early 2000's is still working.

I doubt there is any substantial savings which may have accumulated.

That will not be me.