which funds would you pick?

[deca]

I have the following choices for my 401K:

EKSAX Evergreen Diversified Income Builder Fund A
OAKBX Oakmark Equity & Income I
EKOAX Evergreen Omega A
KAUAX Federated Kaufmann A
EIVAX Evergreen Intrinsic Value Fund A
EVSAX Evergreen Lrg Cap Eq A
THPGX Thompson Plumb Growth
GCMAX Goldman Sachs Md Val A
TEPLX Templeton Growth A
TGVAX Thornburg Intl Value A
EAAFX Evergreen Asst Alloc A

I can choose a percentage of my contributions to go to any combination I want. But I'm kind of lost on how to choose. I'm 33 and my target retirement date is 2045.

Suggestions?

[meaghanchan]

Could you post the expense ratios for the funds? Do you have any other investments outside of the 401(k)?

Before choosing funds, you need to decide on an asset allocation- what percentage of your portfolio you want in US stocks, what percentage you want in foreign stocks, what percentage you want in bonds (you can get more specific than that, but start there). You might look at some of the Target Retirement Funds with a 2045 date to see how some of them are allocated and use that as a starting point. For example, Vanguard's 2045 fund is about 70% US stocks, 20% foreign stocks, 10% bonds.

Your asset allocation, not the specific funds you choose, is responsible for about 90% of your returns, so it's one of the most important investing decisions you can make.

[JBinKC]

I would look at if their is restrictions of how often you can rebalance your allocations and what the expense ratios are and try to do some research on the manager of the fund if you can. From my limited knowledge on the subject Oakmark has had some good international funds but I am not sure of that specific fund and Templeton IMO is one to avoid. The others I really don't know.

To me it appears their is also redundancy in your potential selections but that is kind of standard with what you get to choose from.

Good Luck.

[deca]

I have an IRA with Vanguard in their Target 2045 fund, and I'm pretty comfortable with that allocation. I want this 401K to be similarly invested.

I don''t know how to find out the expense ratios.

I think I can re-balance any time.

[Ima saver]

Most of these are load funds, that is not good!

[Ima saver]

That being said, I would go with
oakmark equity
evergreen lg. cap
federate kauffman A
Thornburg Int'l value

[jIM_Ohio]

I would not use expense ratios as the predictors of good funds. I would look at

a) investment style
b) loads paid
c) 5 and 10 year performance

[LuxLiving]

Also to consider is your relationship to risk - are you a conservative, moderate or agressive investor? Have you gone to places like Fidelity and Vanguard and taken some of their online quizzes to assess yourself on how you tolerate risk?

edited to add:

Also, you'll remember to pick assets that aren't correlated to each other. IOW, when one zigs, you'll want the other to zag! Creating some semblence of balance.

[EverydayFinance]

Often times, if you purchase funds through your employer, the load is waived, but you still pay the expense ratios which might still be high. You should be able to find out the expenses and loads by clicking around on the site. Are they administered through a Fidelity or something? If load applies, stay away, especially for retirement funds. Actively managed load funds are no better performers than low fee Vanguard index funds. The only time I'd get into one is for a very specialized reason, like a long-short fund or some specialized sector. I've recommended one or two on my site for those specific reasons, but in general, for generic uses, stay away.

Dan at everydayfinance