Yes, it's true. No matter what devilish deeds the Standard American Baby undertakes during the previous year, he or she always seems to make it on Saint Nick's "nice" list. Maybe the Jolly Old Elf is a bit of a push-over, or maybe he relies a tad too much on parents' opinions when generating the final list.

Now, I'm sure the previous paragraph made some of you cringe. Before you throw this article down in disgust, keep in mind the times I reference. I'm from the Charlie Brown era when Christmas was run by East Coast syndicates, and, at the behest of Mr. Macy and his annual Thanksgiving Parade, it was deemed our patriotic duty to consume all sorts of merchandise during the Christmas Season. (For bottom-line reasons, the "Christmas" season became the brand name of the season encompassing all Judeo-Christian traditional year-end gift-giving celebrations. As such, it was a season much anticipated by Standard American Babies no matter what their race, color or creed. Well, except for a few, but that digresses from the point of this story.)

Of course, as some of you no doubt remember, it was also a time before the invention of the term "politically correct" and when America had a prevailing philosophy directly opposed to the intolerance of "politically correct."

Back then, we proudly stood up to non-conformists and declared, "I disagree with what you're saying, but I'll defend to my death you're right to say it." And many did (i.e., die defending that right). 

Today, it seems like overenthusiastic non-conformists are more likely to be vilified, sent to "educational training," possibly thrown into jail and/or, at the very least, have "oh, by the way" problems with their IRS agents.

And that "overenthusiasm" is why we use Christmas as our metaphor. Truth be told, this "overenthusiasm" could apply to birthday gifts, random purchases or just about any toy that might cause an obsessive reaction from a child. I could have used any one of those metaphors, but only Christmas and the subsequent "politically correct" discussion yields the generally acknowledged dangers of overzealousness in today's political minefield. Such is the magnitude and seriousness of the "over"-reaching problem facing today's retirement investors.

While it's not politically incorrect to make these mistakes, the consequences can be just as damaging.

Now, to extend our metaphor: What happens to that toy a child so desperately desires in, say, three months after the child receives it? More than likely, it's dispatched to the island of misfit toys (a.k.a., "the attic," "the basement," or some distant relative's toy chest). In fact, the greater the overenthusiasm, the quicker the toy disappears into anonymity. After hours and hours of playing non-stop with this same toy, "familiarity breeds content" takes over and the toy vanishes from the child's mind, only to be taken up by the latest fad.

Sound familiar? Substitute "toy" with "investment" and "child" with "retirement investor" and you begin to see where we're going. Parents know if they concede to their child's every whim, funding their retirement will be the least of their worries. (To complete our metaphor, substitute "parent" with "plan fiduciary.") So good parents don't spoil their children by giving them everything they want. That is, unless their very good at selling used toys on eBay.

Plan fiduciaries don't have a metaphorical equivalent to eBay. But they can do some things with plan design to help discourage employees from falling prey to various fads. But that's the subject for another time (q.v., 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions, Pandamensional Solutions, Inc., 2012). This article speaks directly to plan sponsors and their retirement investors, for, in the end, the best way to avoid mistakes is to identify them before you're taken in by them.

I've broken down these common mistakes into three "Over" problems – and "overenthusiasm" isn't one of them.

You can read about them in "The Three Most Common "Over"-reach Mistakes Plan Sponsors have a Fiduciary Duty to Help Retirement Investors Avoid," FiduciaryNews.com, May 13, 2014.

And remember the story of Icarus: Sometimes when you reach too high, you get burned.