Re: Help with 401k allocation
A couple additional questions might help fine-tune these suggestions...
1. What is your risk tolerance (conservative, aggressive, in the middle?)
2. What are the ERs (expense ratios) on these funds?
3. Are you open to investing in other ways (ie a Roth IRA where you can choose your own funds)?
4. Do you want a hands-off approach, or are you open to doing some stuff yourself (such as rebalancing every year)
With those answered, I could probably give you better suggestions, but here's some initial advice...
I would do one of these:
A)
100% Fidelity Freedom 2040 Fund FFFFX
OR
B)
50% Fidelity Spartan US Equity Fund FUSEX
30% Vanguard Global Equity Fund VHGEX
20% PIMCO Total Return Fund PTRAX
Now, the advantage of A is that it's a one-fund option that you don't ever have to touch or worry about rebalancing. It'll take care of itself. It also has low expense ratios.
The advantage of B (or something like it) is that you can set up your allocation exactly how you want it- Maybe the Freedom Fund doesn't have as much international as you would like, or maybe it doesn't have as much small cap as you would like... Doing a more 'slice and dice' approach, as opposed to a one-fund approach, gives you more flexibility. You'll notice, though, that I didn't include any mid-caps, small-caps, or REITs. That's because (though I may be wrong, I'm not familiar with all the funds) it looks like you don't have any low-cost options for those asset classes. If you wanted small-cap, mid-caps, and REITs, you could open up an IRA (Roth or traditional, I reccommend Roth) to give you some allocation to those asset classes.
This is just a suggestion, hope others chime in with their thoughts.
Oh, BTW- I'm 24, and 100% of my retirement allocation is in a Vanguard target retirement fund similar to the Fidelity Freedom 2040 fund.
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