Suggested Allocation (401K) - Your Opinion? (inheritance, bond, value fund, Vanguard)

[lottamoxie]

My company has an arrangement with Financial Engines that allows employees to do financial check-ups. I ran the wizard, where it analyzes current 401K fund allocation and shows their suggestions based on risk profile.

I selected 2 different risk profiles to see what they might recommend.

I'd like to get the opinions of the folks here.

Here's the suggested allocations, compared to my current allocation

[mathjak107]

there is zero reason to have a target fund in that mix

[GoCUBS1]

How close to retirement are you?

[lottamoxie]

Originally Posted by GoCUBS1

How close to retirement are you?

Well, that's complicated and depends entirely on 2 things: if I can stay employed & how much inheritance is eventually left for me.

Retirement could be as little as 3 to 4 years or up to 10 more years. I have 11 yrs before I am eligible for full SS benefits, but I don't want to work that long.

[lottamoxie]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

there is zero reason to have a target fund in that mix

Ironically, that Vanguard 2025 target fund is up 6.41% to Contrafund's 3.68% this year.

In my 401K, Contrafund is my lowest performing fund of all my equities and bond funds, YTD. Only the MIP II stable value fund is lower.

[mathjak107]

The target fund is trying to maintain a certain allocation with a glide path that changes. All the other stuff just undoes what the target fund is trying to do.

It isn't the fact that at the moment the target fund is higher or lower. It is the fact it makes no sense holding one once you add other funds in

[lottamoxie]

Right, understood.

I think my index fund choices are kind of :-/.

BTC EQUITY IDX NL M is the best of those, followed by BTC RSL 2500 NL M

That list looks uninspiring to me except for a few of the actively managed funds.

[mathjak107]

over the 1 year 2025 and contra are just about the same but going back anything more it is not even close .

ytd 2025 has done better but that means nothing for a real comparison .

if we look at the last 3 months contra did better as an example .

[lottamoxie]

I'm not selling my Contrafund despite what Financial Engines advises.

[lottamoxie]

Given that my current company is constantly doing reorgs and they layoff 3 times a year on average, I'll be surprised if I'm still there 12 months from now, and I just passed 18 months of service. The company is just that unstable. I'm holding on, but not expecting anything. I just keep socking away $$ and riding this wave as long as possible.