Concerned about my investment allocations

[jb90304]

I'm 23 so I have a long way to go til retirement. I feel like I'm a bit too concerned about my investments lately and checking on it way too often (not healthy, I don't think..). I want to be at a point where I am confident about where I've placed my money so I'm not thinking about it all the time.. This is what my portfolio looks like as of right now.

~$5,000 in savings account (MY SAFE FUND)

~$10,000 in Vanguard LIfeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund (I consider this pretty safe too)

~$500 in my employer's 401k which looks like this ---- (I don't have much on here because I opened this not too long ago and my income isn't very high.... so putting away 5% of my paycheck so far doesn't give me too much; It is very aggressive, mostly stocks)
-Publix Stock - 5% (those of you who do not live in SE region, Publix is a privately owned company so public cannot buy these stocks. Some have advised me to put much more here but my bet is that this company will peak in about 20yrs or less and I'm looking much further than that... and I'm not willing to place my bet on them going public.. though I don't feel so confident on that bet, but I'm a pretty conservative person)
-SSgA S&P 500 Index - 20%
-SSgA S&P MidCap Index - 15%
-Royce Penn Mutual Fund - 10%
-American EuroPac Growth R-4 - 20%
-SSgA Conservative Strateg Bal - 15%
-SSgA Moderate Strateg Bal - 5%
-SSgA Aggressive Strateg Bal - 10%

What advise would you give to my investment

[lrodptl]

I'm 23 so I have a long way to go til retirement. I feel like I'm a bit too concerned about my investments lately and checking on it way too often (not healthy, I don't think..). I want to be at a point where I am confident about where I've placed my money so I'm not thinking about it all the time.. This is what my portfolio looks like as of right now.

~$5,000 in savings account (MY SAFE FUND)

~$10,000 in Vanguard LIfeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund (I consider this pretty safe too)

~$500 in my employer's 401k which looks like this ---- (I don't have much on here because I opened this not too long ago and my income isn't very high.... so putting away 5% of my paycheck so far doesn't give me too much; It is very aggressive, mostly stocks)
-Publix Stock - 5% (those of you who do not live in SE region, Publix is a privately owned company so public cannot buy these stocks. Some have advised me to put much more here but my bet is that this company will peak in about 20yrs or less and I'm looking much further than that... and I'm not willing to place my bet on them going public.. though I don't feel so confident on that bet, but I'm a pretty conservative person)
-SSgA S&P 500 Index - 20%
-SSgA S&P MidCap Index - 15%
-Royce Penn Mutual Fund - 10%
-American EuroPac Growth R-4 - 20%
-SSgA Conservative Strateg Bal - 15%
-SSgA Moderate Strateg Bal - 5%
-SSgA Aggressive Strateg Bal - 10%

What advise would you give to my investment

Personally I'd be much more aggressive. I'm 6 years from retirement and my 401K holdings are more aggressive than yours. Maybe not recommended but at 23 I'd be swinging harder.

[Petunia 100]

I'm 23 so I have a long way to go til retirement. I feel like I'm a bit too concerned about my investments lately and checking on it way too often (not healthy, I don't think..). I want to be at a point where I am confident about where I've placed my money so I'm not thinking about it all the time.. This is what my portfolio looks like as of right now.

~$5,000 in savings account (MY SAFE FUND)

~$10,000 in Vanguard LIfeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund (I consider this pretty safe too)

~$500 in my employer's 401k which looks like this ---- (I don't have much on here because I opened this not too long ago and my income isn't very high.... so putting away 5% of my paycheck so far doesn't give me too much; It is very aggressive, mostly stocks)
-Publix Stock - 5% (those of you who do not live in SE region, Publix is a privately owned company so public cannot buy these stocks. Some have advised me to put much more here but my bet is that this company will peak in about 20yrs or less and I'm looking much further than that... and I'm not willing to place my bet on them going public.. though I don't feel so confident on that bet, but I'm a pretty conservative person)
-SSgA S&P 500 Index - 20%
-SSgA S&P MidCap Index - 15%
-Royce Penn Mutual Fund - 10%
-American EuroPac Growth R-4 - 20%
-SSgA Conservative Strateg Bal - 15%
-SSgA Moderate Strateg Bal - 5%
-SSgA Aggressive Strateg Bal - 10%

What advise would you give to my investment

Is the LifeStrategy Moderate Growth in a taxable account? In an IRA?

In your 401k, those "Strategy Balanced" funds are designed to be complete portfolios. Either choose 1 of the balanced funds and put all of your money in, or skip them completely. You are defeating the purpose by including small portions of 3 different funds, plus using the other funds.

ETA: I just tried to look up your funds on MorningStar. I cannot find those "Strategy Balanced" funds. Do you have the ticker symbols?

[snafu]

At 23 you have a lot of accounts. What is the Management Expense Ratio [MER] for each fund? How much is it costing you total? Are you Dollar Cost Averaging [DCA] into each holding?

[jpg7n16]

Is the LifeStrategy Moderate Growth in a taxable account? In an IRA?

In your 401k, those "Strategy Balanced" funds are designed to be complete portfolios. Either choose 1 of the balanced funds and put all of your money in, or skip them completely. You are defeating the purpose by including small portions of 3 different funds, plus using the other funds.

ETA: I just tried to look up your funds on MorningStar. I cannot find those "Strategy Balanced" funds. Do you have the ticker symbols?

Found them through Google:

https://myplan.ingplans.com/static/epweb/pdf/ffs/AK20711001.PDF

https://myplan.ingplans.com/static/epweb/pdf/ffs/AK19711001.PDF

From the fee disclosure on the bottom of the last page, it looks like the expense ratio is 0.03%, which seems too low, but may be the case. OP, do you have any different info on that?

I'm 23 so I have a long way to go til retirement. I feel like I'm a bit too concerned about my investments lately and checking on it way too often (not healthy, I don't think..).

Why do you keep checking on it?

~$5,000 in savings account (MY SAFE FUND)

~$10,000 in Vanguard LIfeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund (I consider this pretty safe too)

~$500 in my employer's 401k which looks like this

So you titled the post, concerned about your investment allocations. Are you talking about the split on your $500? Or overall?

IMO it's best to view the allocation discussion first by looking at the goal for the funds. If there are different goals, there should be different allocations for the funds.

In other words, if you intend to use the $10k in a few years for a home, you should invest it differently than if you intend to use it for retirement.

The goal for the $5k is simple - emergency funds. Would require safe secure investments, like cash equivalents such as a savings account. You're spot on there.

What's the goal for the $10k? What type of account is it held in? (taxable, IRA)

Is the goal for your $500 in your 401k retirement? Or something different? I'm assuming retirement until shown otherwise.

What advise would you give to my investment

I've noticed through my google searches that SSgA also has retirement target date funds. Is that available in your plan? Have you considering using it to handle all the allocation for your funds?

If you want to think about your allocation less, you should use a single fund to do all of that for you. Let them worry about it.


And just to cover my bases, what percent of your income are you saving for retirement? Is it enough?
AARP Retirement Calculator - How to Retire, Plan for Retirement

[smk]

if you want to worry less, you need to have more knowledge about what you are doing and why it should work. you can try a free program that seems to do a good job on asset allocation: Problems in the Financial Planning Field

you can learn a lot by going through their presentations and reading up on their suggested research. the stuff on equity risk premium addresses what types of returns you might expect on equities and might be helpful.

they also show you how to match your returns vs TIPs which is a good proxy for your retirement expenses. when you have a better sense of where the track is you are supposed to be on, then you may feel more comfortable with the swings in the markets...

[Bayspieler]

I'd say.

1. Keep the $5000 in your savings account.

2. Get the $10,000 into an IRA as soon as possible. You can put $5,000 in here at the end of this year and start putting in the next $5,000 early next year. Invest it more aggressively in Vanguard's S&P 500 track fund.

3. Set your allocation to the 5% Publix stock and then about 75% into an S&P 500 track fund and the remaining 20% into some kind of international stock fund.

At age 23, don't fret about the safety of money that you don't intend to touch until age 60. It sounds like you're doing very well in the savings realm, which is probably the most important.

[BuckyBadger]

I'd recommend a 3 fund "lazy" portfolio made up of three index funds: total US stock, total US bonds, and total International stock. Choose an asset allocation that you are comfortable with (i.e. your age in bonds) and re balance once a year. Other than that once a year, just keep contributing and ignoring it.

Cheap, easy, and you'll make as much or more than slice 'n dice portfolios without spending more than 20 minutes a year managing your investments.