401(k) Champions and Soaring Value Stocks

In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, Motley Fool personal finance expert Robert Brokamp discusses grassroots retirement education with Julie Jason, the founder and CEO of Jackson Grant Investment Advisors and the creator of the annual 401(k) Champion Award.

Also in this episode:

• Value stock index funds beating the S&P 500.
• Interest rate deduction for student loan borrowers.
• 401(k)s, catch-up contributions, and Roth accounts.
• Evaluate tax withholding from your paycheck.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on June 27, 2026.

Robert Brokamp: Are you a 401(k) champion to your friends and colleagues, and what's really in your value fund? That and more on this Saturday’s Personal Finance edition of The Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing Podcast. I'm Robert Brokamp, and this week, I speak with financial advisor Julie Jason, the creator of the 401(k) Champion Award that recognizes people who serve as role models, educators, and mentors in the workplace when it comes to saving for retirement.

But first, some items that caught my eye over the past week or so, when you think of value stocks, what companies come to mind? If visions of stodgy, slower-growth firms dance in your head, then you may be surprised to know that value stocks are actually outperforming the S&P 500 so far this year and over the trailing 12 months, at least as measured by the Vanguard Value ETF Ticker VTV, the largest value ETF in the U.S. It's up 16% so far in 2026 as of this taping on Friday morning compared to 8% for the S&P 500, and it's up 29% over the past year versus 22% for the S&P 500. Given all the hullabaloo about AI and tech stocks, how can value stocks be doing so well? Look under the hood, and you'll see the answer. The top holding in the Vanguard Value ETF is Micron Technology, which is up 854% over the past year. Also on the Top 10 holdings are Cisco and Intel, up 77% and 499% respectively over the trailing 12 months.

You'll find those same stocks in the Top 10 holdings of another popular value index ETF, the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF Ticker: IWD, but it also includes Alphabet, which is up 102% over the past year. A recent report from Schroders Investment Management cited evidence that value stocks can actually be a good hedge against AI risk without sacrificing equity exposure, but the report also cautions that a passive value index fund may not fit the bill since many of the prominent value indexes have significant exposure to the Magnificent Seven and or other technology companies, as we've just seen. You might have to dig a little deeper to find true value stocks these days.

The next item comes from a CNBC article by Annie Nova, which highlights a recent announcement from the Department of Education. Student loan borrowers who sign up for auto pay will receive a one percentage point discount on their interest rates starting July 1st, up from the current 0.25% discount. According to the article, only 40% of student loan borrowers are enrolled in autopay, down from more than 80% before the pandemic. Borrowers need to sign up by Sept. 30, and the discount will last through June of 2028. Likely won't result in an enormous savings, but every little bit helps. Around 42 million Americans hold federal student loans nowadays, owing more than $1.6 trillion, exceeding the $1.1 trillion Americans owe on credit cards.

Now the number of the week, which is 6.6%. That is the median amount that workers are contributing to 401(k)s administered by Vanguard, according to the firm's latest How America Saves report. Though in employer contributions, and the median contribution rate is 11.6%. That number has slowly crept up over the past five years or so, but it is still below the 15% savings rate that many experts recommend. Few other interesting stats from the report, 14% of workers contribute the maximum to their accounts, 17% of workers age 50 and older are making catch-up contributions, and 18% of workers are contributing to Roth accounts, which, frankly, to me, seems a little low. More workers should probably be putting at least some of their 401(k) money into Roths.

Do you have above our average knowledge about 401(k)s, and have you ever shared it with your colleagues? That's our next topic of conversation when Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing continues.

Primary way that Americans save for retirement is through a work-sponsored plan such as a 401(k). Most of the education about that plan comes from the employer or the plan provider. But it doesn't have to be that way. You yourself could be a source of knowledge and encouragement to your colleagues, friends, and relatives. Here to explain how is Julie Jason, the founder and CEO of Jackson Grant Investment Advisors and the creator of the Annual 401(k) Champion Award. Julie, welcome to the show.

Julie Jason: Thank you, Robert, and by the way, everyone has to know that you are a 401(k) champion.

Robert Brokamp: Thank you. Yes, I was very honored to receive the Award in 2021, and maybe we'll get to that story here later in the show. But let's start by you telling us about the inspiration behind the 401(k) Champion Award.

Julie Jason: I have a short story, and I have a long story. Let me tell you what triggered my interest in 401(k)s first, which will give you a little bit of background on why we went in this direction. A long time ago, I had a client who was not participating in his 401(k), and yet, there was a match on the 401(k). We had a long conversation about how if you invest on your own outside of the 401(k), it's going to take you much longer to build wealth. Within your 401(k), especially with dollar-for-dollar match, you have immediate compounding, so you don't have to wait. Time is the element there, and that led me to go to the local bookstore to look for a book on 401(k)s so that I could give him. There was no bookstore. No, there was a bookstore, but there was no book on 401(k)s in the bookstore, so that'll tell you how long this was. It was in the ‘90s. I took it upon myself to write a book for 401(k) participants about how to think of the 401(k) as an investment alternative, not just another benefit plan. That led to my really taking a dive into how 401(k)s work, and that led to another book for 401(k) sponsors after doing you and your 401(k), so that’s the background.

Over the years, I followed education, 401(k) education and what I found was it wasn't doing a good job. In other words, your standard 401(k) education wasn't good enough for me. During this journey, I became an advocate for financial literacy education. But the most important element of financial literacy education is to take a look at what your options are and maximize those that give you the biggest bang for the buck in terms of time, because time is the element that really drives investment success. Given all that, then I looked for, how do you really think of educating a 401(k) eligible person who hasn't taken the time to really study. It can be daunting to try to figure out how a 401(k) works. Just in a brainstorming session with a co-worker, we came up with this concept of, Hey, why don't we do a contest at the participant level so that participants can talk to each other? Just bring everything down to grassroots communication instead of someone sitting at the top trying to teach you on how to use your 401(k). That's the long story.

But it was a wonderful journey, and I think it's very valuable that now we have a mechanism to reach 401(k) participants who can then tell their story about why they love their 401(k)s. What that does is it leads to more conversations on a peer-to-peer level. I really think that that can be a big breaking through moment. We need more people to learn about this contest, and it is 100% pro bono. There is no fee of any sort, and we really want to see if we can bring this into individual 401(k) sponsors as well, so that they can sponsor their own 401(k) contest of this type.

Robert Brokamp: Whenever I meet someone who is about to retire or has retired, I'll often ask them, How did you do it? What was the secret to your success? Over and over again, many people will tell me, at some point when I was younger, someone told me, a colleague, a friend asked, like, Hey, have you signed up for the 401(k) yet? You haven't. You better do that. Oh, or how much are you saving? Well, I'm just saving 3%. Well, you probably should be saving more that term you use, grassroots, that like other people telling you, not just the person at the top, but other people telling you this is the smart thing to do. It really has a huge benefit on people.

Julie Jason: That's interesting that you say that because when we started the contest, one of the things that surprised us was how important the mentor was in the equation, and it is exactly what you're talking about. You know what? I didn't see that in the educational literature. I did not see anyone talking about the importance of mentorship, but that's what this contest does. It just brings out, how do you learn about these things? Someone has to tell you, you're not going to jump in and start reading 401(k) materials unless you know why you should.

Robert Brokamp: Have you come across anything that has surprised you since you've been giving out this award and you've been doing it since 2019? Maybe it surprised you either because it was unique or maybe just a little offbeat.

Julie Jason: The biggest surprise was what we just talked about, the fact that the literature doesn't mention mentorship. I think as someone who is a financial literacy proponent, what I found surprising was how important it was for the individuals who were actually applying for the award to be the 401(k) champion, how they all focused on their mentors. Someone guided them to not only enroll in their 401(k)s, but also to learn how to maximize their 401(k)s. Maximize what I mean by that is to look at the match if there is a match or the company contribution and figure out how can I make the most of that contribution?

That takes a little studying, so the next level of the surprise is people talking to each other at work over lunch about, do you know how to maximize a 401(k)? It just opens up the dialogue at a very natural level where there's no exam that's coming up. One of the things I found in 401(k) education is that when someone's giving a presentation in the front of the room, it feels like you're in school. It feels like you're going to have a test. You know what? You may or may not remember, and it may or may not apply to your particular situation. I really like taking this dialogue down to employee and employee. The conversations not going to be anything about how to invest or anything that leads to a potential issue. It all has to do with, are you taking advantage, and here's how I took advantage?

Robert Brokamp: That's a great way to put it. You definitely don't want to be in a position offering personalized investment advice to your colleagues, but explaining what you've done, where you've learned things, books you've read, maybe websites you use that all can be helpful information to someone. That's what some colleagues could do for you. To a certain degree, it starts with the employer. What can employers be doing to increase 401(k) participation and maybe just overall retirement preparedness?

Julie Jason: In my experience watching 401(k) sponsors, I can tell you that I see differences, and some companies actually do have a mission of 401(k) education through a broader label under financial literacy. I love seeing companies that come out and say something about how much they love financial literacy education. What that does is it opens up groups within the company that have common interests and can come together to talk about credit cards or how to get a mortgage or how to invest appropriately within a 401(k) or how to maximize contributions.

Or the one that I really love is how to manage your W4. I want to talk about that a little bit, because the companies that can help employees manage their W4s are really doing them a favor. I'm talking about the employee who is eligible but is not participating because he's afraid of not having enough money in the paycheck. I'll just give you one example where there can be such huge impact. Take an employee who has a W4 that overwithholds, meaning more money is taken out of the paycheck to go to the U.S. Treasury. Then at the beginning of the next year, the employee gets back a refund. That is the worst situation for a participant or a non-participant to be in. The company can help educate that employee on how to change this W4 withholding in order to avoid sending money to the treasury too early, giving the government a loan, and instead using that to keep your paycheck about the same, but that employee can then use that extra money in the paycheck to contribute to the 401(k). Instead of sending money to the government, you're sending money to the 401(k). Yes, you don't get the refund. But look, especially in a 401(k) that has a dollar-for-dollar match or $0.50 per dollar match or really any match, you have a huge benefit there for you. Yes, it takes a little thoughtfulness. It takes a little thinking, takes a little planning, but boy, is it worth it?

Robert Brokamp: That's a really good point, actually, because I think it's somewhere around 70% of people do get a refund. They're having too much withheld and it is nice to get that check back on, some point in April or May. But you would be better off if that were stead in your 401(k) and growing over the years.

Julie Jason: Especially if there's a match. I think, if anything, can come from this contest. If more companies could be focused on helping their employees understand how to manage their W4s, that would just be such a huge benefit.

Robert Brokamp: You talked about some of the things that companies do like financial literacy, financial wellness. We at The Motley Fool, we do something called Financial Health Week, which started out as Financial Health Day back in 2010. The 401(k) Champion Award, when I consider that I was awarded, I consider getting it on behalf of a small group of employees who did some good work at The Motley Fool in their earlier days. One of them was to start this Financial Health Day, which is now Financial Health Week. But the other thing at The Motley Fool was that, frankly, when 401(k) was pretty lousy back in the ‘90s when the company started. This was not unusual for small start-ups back in the day. It was hard for small companies to get a solid 401(k) plan. The expense ratio on our S&P 500 index fund was something like 1.5%. We got together, and we asked the leadership at the company, Lee Burbidge, our director of HR, and Tom and David Gardner, the co-founder, who said, Hey, we’re The Motley Fool. We should have a good 401(k). They said, You're right. Why don't you guys go do that? They empowered us to do it. We were lucky that we had leadership that was willing to let us do that. Some companies may or may not be so amenable to that, and I know there are many folks out there who are stuck in mediocre or worse plans. Do you have any advice for how employees could approach their employers about improving their plans?

Julie Jason: I think it's a very important discussion, and no one should be concerned about overstepping boundaries if they really see a way to create a benefit for not just themselves, but for other employees. The idea is to present to someone close to you, a boss or even to HR or even in some companies to the founder or the CEO, because it's a very important financial health issue for the people who work there so it's communication it's talking. It's maybe sitting down in the cafeteria together and just bringing it up. Don't even think about it. Jus do it.

Robert Brokamp: I often make the point that the people that you'll be advocating to for a better plan are in the same boat as you in many cases. Whoever's in charge of HR, whoever your boss is, maybe even the CEO or owner of the company, they're participating in the same plan, and hopefully they have the same incentive as making sure it's as good as possible.

Julie Jason: Very good point.

Robert Brokamp: If someone is listening to this and thinks that either they or someone they know is worthy of consideration for the 401(k) Champion Award, I will point out, first of all, that it comes with a very attractive trophy, but also $1,000 award. What's the application process?

Julie Jason: We made this so simple that anyone can do the application very, very easily. Just go onto the website, which is 401(k) champion.com, super simple, 401(k) champion.com, and just click on where it says to find the application. I think it actually says apply here, so it’s super easy, and it opens up right away, and then you can fill it out. Most people can fill it out in 10 or 15 minutes. It's absolutely worth the effort to tell your story why you love your 401(k). Then three champions are chosen every year, and so there are three checks that are going out to each of those award winners as well. It’s Worth the 15 minutes, believe me, and if you can get your co-workers to do it, too, that would even be better.

Robert Brokamp: I'll point out that the applications are open and the deadline is Aug. 28, if I remember correctly. Definitely want to get those applications in. Julie, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for all you've done for 401(k) and financial literacy.

Julie Jason: Well, thank you very much.

Robert Brokamp: It's time to get it done, Fools, and we're almost halfway through 2026, so now is a good time to evaluate your tax withholdings to see if you're having too much or not enough withheld. You can use the IRS's online tax withholding estimator. Many tax prep companies like TurboTax and H&R Block offer free online tools, as do payroll companies like ADP. Your own payroll provider probably does, as well. You can use your 2025 tax return for guidance if your financial situation won't be much different this year. In fact, the company or professional who prepared to return may have included guidance on how much you should adjust your withholdings or estimated payments this year. If your situation has changed, perhaps due to a new job or side hustle, maybe you've realized some capital gains or done some Roth conversions or maybe you retired, it's even more important to evaluate how much in taxes you should be paying throughout the year. If you're not having enough withheld, rectify it as soon as possible to avoid underpayment penalties. If you're having too much withheld, file a new W4 and then make sure that your newfound cash flow gets immediately directed to your IRA, 401(k), or other investment account.

That, my Foolish friends, is the show. Thank you so much for listening and thanks to Bart Shannon, the engineer for this episode. As always, people on the program may have interest in the investments they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Don't buy or sell investments based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. I'm Robert Brokamp, Fool on everybody.

Robert Brokamp, CFP, EA has positions in Vanguard Value ETF. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Micron Technology and Vanguard Value ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.