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I am in my mid-20's and going for the aggressive profile. Here are a list of investment options I can choose for my new company's 401K plan:
Fidelity Retire MMKT
Fidelity Govt Income
Fid Total Bond
Fidelity US BD Index
Fid Equity Income
Fid Value
M&N Problnd Maximum
Spartan US Eq Index
Fidelity Low PR Stk
Keeley Small Cap Val
Fid Independence
Fid Contrafund
Fid Mid Cap Stock
Fid Sm Cap Independ
Royce Value Plus Ser
Fid Diversified Intl
Janus Adv Intl Gth S
DWS Glbl Thematic S
Fid Freedom Income
Fid Freedom 2010
Fid Freedom 2020
Fid Freedom 2030
Fid Freedom 2040
Fid Freedom 2005
Fid Freedom 2015
Fid Freedom 2035
Fid Freedom 2045
Fid Freedom 2050
Based on the options available and my profile, which ones should I choose and what percentage of each? I want to stay diversified of course but also aggressive. At my last job I paid another company to monitor my 401K basically but I don't easily have that option with the new company. Just looking for some additional advice.
i dont like the freedom funds, nor do i support janus funds anymore..... i do like very much low priced stock fund,equity income and diversified international. low priced stock fund has been one of my babies since its inception . im not thrilled about any bond funds right now but total bond is not a bad choice. at least it includes some high yield.
not to keene on fidelity value, the old manager is gone ,the fund lagged in 2010 and is now run by a 6 man team.
fidelity independance was also a laggard. its benchmark is the s&p 500 and because of it any bets it made in the small and medium stock areas were overshadowed by the larger s&p 500 size companies.
contra is run by legendary will danoff... for 20 years the funds performance was legendery. a 100k investment was worth over 1 million while the s&p 500 returned 1/2 that. he has only beat the markets 60% of the time but when he did it was by alot creating great performance.
ill try to fill you in on some more as i have time..
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-30-2011 at 04:37 PM..
i dont like the freedom funds, nor do i support janus funds anymore..... i do like very much low priced stock fund,equity income and diversified international. low priced stock fund has been one of my babies since its inception . im not thrilled about any bond funds right now but total bond is not a bad choice. at least it includes some high yield.
not to keene on fidelity value, the old manager is gone ,the fund lagged in 2010 and is now run by a 6 man team.
fidelity independance was also a laggard. its benchmark is the s&p 500 and because of it any bets it made in the small and medium stock areas were overshadowed by the larger s&p 500 size companies.
contra is run by legendary will danoff... for 20 years the funds performance was legendery. a 100k investment was worth over 1 million while the s&p 500 returned 1/2 that. he has only beat the markets 60% of the time but when he did it was by alot creating great performance.
ill try to fill you in on some more as i have time..
I am in my mid-20's and going for the aggressive profile. Here are a list of investment options I can choose for my new company's 401K plan:
Fidelity Retire MMKT
Fidelity Govt Income
Fid Total Bond
Fidelity US BD Index
Fid Equity Income
Fid Value
M&N Problnd Maximum
Spartan US Eq Index
Fidelity Low PR Stk
Keeley Small Cap Val
Fid Independence
Fid Contrafund
Fid Mid Cap Stock
Fid Sm Cap Independ
Royce Value Plus Ser
Fid Diversified Intl
Janus Adv Intl Gth S
DWS Glbl Thematic S
Fid Freedom Income
Fid Freedom 2010
Fid Freedom 2020
Fid Freedom 2030
Fid Freedom 2040
Fid Freedom 2005
Fid Freedom 2015
Fid Freedom 2035
Fid Freedom 2045
Fid Freedom 2050
Based on the options available and my profile, which ones should I choose and what percentage of each? I want to stay diversified of course but also aggressive. At my last job I paid another company to monitor my 401K basically but I don't easily have that option with the new company. Just looking for some additional advice.
Thanks!
It's too bad you don't have Fidelity Balanced as an option. I would go with 75% Fidelity Contrafund and 25% Fidelity Total Bond Market and rebalance quarterly. At the very least, rebalance annually.
Do you have an automatic rebalancing option? We have one in my plan and I love it and highly recommend it.
I might recommend one of the Fidelity Freedom funds, but I don't know enough about them.
The thing I don't like about Fidelity is they have a "revolving door" problem with their managers. New mangers come in and totally shake things up all the time. So far, Will Danoff has been managing Contrafund for 20 years now...but I wonder how much longer he'll be there.
You really have to watch out for those manager changes with Fidelity, which is annoying.
the thing i dont like about freedom funds is they really are not geared for dollar cost averaging which is the exact opposite of how they are used.
because over time stock prices rise you get less and less shares for your contribution while at the same time the fund is cutting back on its stock allocations leaving you with a portfolio that may be far more conservative then you wanted.
Im not familiar with these plans. But Im also young and mine is set to 60% Small Cap Growth and 40% Small Value Growth. Mine is set for very aggressive, which is all stocks.
I feel really, really old. I remember a day when your company (well, your granddad's company) set aside something called a "pension." Some were pretty extravagant, but most were reasonable. The company invested in the workers, and the workers got a monthly check, a fixed income out of it when they retired. At age 40 you knew what you'd get at age 70 and could plan accordingly. They gave you money as a thank you for putting your life into their product, service, etc.
Today your boss says, "put your money in the Stock Market! We'll match you up to 4%." Then, by the time you retire, yeah, sure, you've got a bunch of money in your 401k, but since it was in the Stock Market, sometimes it went up, sometimes it came down. You may never get the fullness of what it is worth. Today, at age 40 your portfolio might be worth $100,000 and at age 50, $150,000. But at age 70 it might be worth $25,000. You can't plan your retirement on an unknown figure.
Your granddad's pension was his company's investment in him. Your 401k is an investment in the pocket of some Stock Broker who isn't interested in your retirement, only his own. It's a crap shoot. It seemed like a great idea at the time (when the Market was up), now it's cost prohibitive to get out of it. If I had it to do all over again I'd stay out of it in the first place. Put your money under the mattress.
I just can't get accustomed to a system where you can loose money.
Go for Will Danoff & the Contra fund. I (well my parents) squirreled away my 16th bday money in FCNTX years ago and the last time I checked it's increased 5x its initial value, way better than their alternative choices of Magellan or Growth & Income.
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