Starting to look at my IRA allocations

[stoney508]

Well here is the layout of my retirement investments.

I have a ROTH through Fidelity with 3000 invested right now putting 100 a month into this.

I have my work 401k with 6 percent of my income going into this each paycheck the first 3 percent is 100% matched with the next 2 percent with a 50% match. I also have a ROTH 401k through work with 1% going into it. My investments are Vanguard Windsor II, Fundamental investors, AMCAP Fund Class R-6, and EuroPacific Growth fund.

Now I have my old employers 401k I am rolling over into a separate IRA with a total of 39k and am looking at different investments and would like your take on what I should invest in. My financial advisor is looking to invest in medical, oil, overseas looking towards euro area but I am not sure and would like your take.

I am 28 years old and my salary is 52,100 a year. I currently rent and have some savings for a house but trying to reduce debt. My credit card and Student Loan are all I have for debt but that's a different thread. I am not looking at adding to the IRA at this time but in the future when things are a little more manageable probably in another 5 years or so to add to this account. Any recommendations would help thank you.

[Petunia 100]

Personally, I would stick with broadly diversified funds and avoid making sector bets.

[stoney508]

I am looking to be more aggressive with these funds which broad based investments seem to be a little more conservative. I plan to be balanced but lean a little heavier towards aggressive. I know my advisor is possibly looking towards the aggressive end so I will have to roll back a little I am just wondering what will be other possibilities to look at. Any specific investments that anyone would recommend?

[feh]

I am looking to be more aggressive with these funds which broad based investments seem to be a little more conservative. I plan to be balanced but lean a little heavier towards aggressive. I know my advisor is possibly looking towards the aggressive end so I will have to roll back a little I am just wondering what will be other possibilities to look at. Any specific investments that anyone would recommend?

Dump your advisor and educate yourself. Start here:

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investing_start-up_kit

Seriously - get rid of the advisor, and top trying to outperform the market. At your age, your savings rate is much more important than returns.

[stoney508]

For one I'm not paying my advisor (free service with bank) and I'm not going in blindly expecting him to know everything I'm not trying to out perform the market and I'm trying to use my age as an advantage. I set myself up with a mix of small mid and large cap funds leaning more towards the aggressive while still maintaining a small fee when it comes to expenses for the funds the options he was mentioning was for a small amount of my funds we ended up sticking with index funds but I like his frame of thinking with keeping an eye on the market and taking small chances that could pay off big in the future but I'm not at that point yet. I was looking for a couple funds to look at but went ahead with the following tickers vwnax abalx cwgix and naesx 10% into each any thoughts?

[Petunia 100]

For one I'm not paying my advisor (free service with bank) and I'm not going in blindly expecting him to know everything I'm not trying to out perform the market and I'm trying to use my age as an advantage. I set myself up with a mix of small mid and large cap funds leaning more towards the aggressive while still maintaining a small fee when it comes to expenses for the funds the options he was mentioning was for a small amount of my funds we ended up sticking with index funds but I like his frame of thinking with keeping an eye on the market and taking small chances that could pay off big in the future but I'm not at that point yet. I was looking for a couple funds to look at but went ahead with the following tickers vwnax abalx cwgix and naesx 10% into each any thoughts?

It's not free, you just don't pay a fee the moment you sit down with the advisor. The fund tickers abalx, cwgix are both for load funds. "Load" is a term which means sales commission. The other two vwnax and naesx are both Vanguard funds. Vanguard refuses to charge investors any 12b-1 fees, therefore it is very common for a second party (such as a bank) to charge a transaction fee each time you buy and sell. Does your bank have a list of NTF (non-transaction fee) funds? While you can buy and sell those with no transaction fees, the 12b-1 fees are built into the annual expense ratio, and you are never done paying them as long as you own the fund.

If you want to do trading in and out of sectors, consider brokerage accounts and etfs. There are places you can trade etfs for free, but not all etfs. For example, Schwab has a list of 200 etfs which you can trade with no commissions.

http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/investment/etfs/schwab_etf_onesource

[rennigade]

For some reason people still believe that its better to have a ton of different investments rather than a simplified approach.

Why complicate your life? There are users over at bogleheads who have 8 figure portfolios and still invest heavily in the vanguard 3 fund approach. Theres a reason why it exists and is so highly recommended. Well diversified and low expenses.

Like others said...ditch the financial person and start to take control of your finances.

Also...when I was 28 I was making around $52k/year...but I was also maxing my 401k and roth. I live in a HCOL area as well. Not sure where all your money is going but you may want to start crunching numbers and find out. You should be contributing more (even though you do not want to.)

[MattNY]

I agree an advisor doesn't make sense for that salary or portfolio amount.

I assessed many financial advisors this year and just couldn't justify using any of them.

After a lot of due diligence using a tool like MorningStar I chose ETFs and Funds I wanted positions in. Then I setup a schedule to invest in those as well as auto-draft contributing monthly.

The allocation totally depends on what you want to have exposure to. I'd be glad to explain more about the research I went through to come up with my own allocation. Sometimes I like to invest in individual stocks too and I reference a newsletter I like for that.