Your Personal 401(k) Handbook

Total Balance: This is your money plus the imaginary money that your employer will theoretically kick in once you stay with the company long enough to be 100 percent "vested."

Contributions: This is how much money has been deducted from your paycheck and put towards your retirement since the last time you received a statement.

Loan Repayments: This is the money that you've repaid your 401(k) account from a loan you took out from your balance. Note that your loan repayments are not mailed in like a phone bill. They're deducted directly from your paycheck.

Disbursements: This is the money you've withdrawn from your 401(k) -- a bad idea, unless it's retirement time.

Transfers: This is the money that you've switched from fund to fund within your 401(k). You probably did this by calling a toll-free number after you got some news about the stock market. Investment counselors do not recommend that you spend too much of your time shifting money between funds, as it is not conducive to the long-term stability that a 401(k) needs to grow.

Investment Earnings: Here's the number to watch. This tells you how much money your 401(k) funds have earned for you since the last statement. Your statement should also show you, on a separate page, a comparison of how all the optional funds are performing.

Credits/Fees: This is how much you were charged for taking out that loan. This is not how much your fund manager charges you for the maintenance of the 401(k). That fee is taken directly out of your earnings on a percentage basis -- and you never see it on your statement. Congress may soon change this practice.

Vested Percentage: This tells you that you've been with the company only long enough to be entitled to 60 percent or some other percentage of your employer's matching contribution.

Ending Outstanding Balance: This is what you still owe on that loan.

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