Help me with my 401K?

[punkass]

FFK: 25% match up to 7%? so you put in 7% and they put in 1.75%? Not bad, but definitely not the best. But it's free money, so put in at least 7%. If you're saving to buy a home, you can take out money from your 401k for your first home purchase, up to some amount.

For those who are intimidated or do not know how to allocate, the 2040 fund is a good place to park your money, as over time it will gradually start shifting your money from riskier funds to safer funds as you get closer and closer to retirement. But I think it starts off too safe. It's got about 10% in safe stuff. It's minor, but I think you can live with 5%, or even 0%, depending on how risk-averse you are.

On the other side, it has over a quarter of your money in foreign markets, which are much riskier than regular equities in the US.

If it was me...i'd do something like

22% AC Lg Company Value
22% AF Growth Fund
22% STI Classic Small Cap Value
22% Artisan Small Cap
12% JB Int'l Equity

[jively]

That fund would be fine. 90% stock is pretty aggressive, and using 1 fund is extremely simple.

If you have an interest in the topic and want to make a 100% stock portfolio, read through my 3 posts at the beginning of this thread.

-Tom

[drewjustdrew]

[ QUOTE ]
I enrolled in my employer's retirement plan at the beginning of the year. My office is only ~30 people, so their plan is nothing like Humphrey's -- a SARSEP plan, no matching monies from employer, rules are essentially (afaik) equivilent to a 401k.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seriously consider getting a Roth IRA first. They offer you thousands of mutual funds and individual stocks. Once contribution limit is maxed, then put money in sarsep. If your company had a match, that would make it a different story.

[Sherpa]

I am setting up my ESOP contributions for the upcoming year. As I'm getting enrolled for the first time in this, I need to select my funds. I'm concerned with the lack of Small cap and where to distribute with this small (and somewhat unfamiliar) group of funds. Choices:

I am looking at portfolio A or B, so I will leave out the "STability of Principal" options

BONDS:
ING VP Intermediate Bod Port - I

BALANCED:
ING VP Balanced Portfolio, Inc - I

LARGE CAP VALUE:
Fidelity VIP Equity-Income Port-Init
ING VP GRowth and INcome Port - I
ING VP Index Plus LargeCap Port - I

LARGE CAP GROWTH:
FIdelity VIP Growth Portfolio - Init
ING Legg Mason Prtns Aggr Gr-Init
ING UBS US Large Cap EQ Port-Init

SMALL/MID:
ING T. Rowe Price Diver Mid Cap Gr-I

GLOBAL:
ING JPMorgan Int'l Port-Init


Recommendations? Thanks...

[jively]

[ QUOTE ]
I am setting up my ESOP contributions for the upcoming year. As I'm getting enrolled for the first time in this, I need to select my funds. I'm concerned with the lack of Small cap and where to distribute with this small (and somewhat unfamiliar) group of funds. Choices:

I am looking at portfolio A or B, so I will leave out the "STability of Principal" options

BONDS:
ING VP Intermediate Bod Port - I

BALANCED:
ING VP Balanced Portfolio, Inc - I

LARGE CAP VALUE:
Fidelity VIP Equity-Income Port-Init
ING VP GRowth and INcome Port - I
ING VP Index Plus LargeCap Port - I

LARGE CAP GROWTH:
FIdelity VIP Growth Portfolio - Init
ING Legg Mason Prtns Aggr Gr-Init
ING UBS US Large Cap EQ Port-Init

SMALL/MID:
ING T. Rowe Price Diver Mid Cap Gr-I

GLOBAL:
ING JPMorgan Int'l Port-Init

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry I missed this in October.

That is a meager set of options. For portfolio A, I guess I'd go with something like:

LCB 20% ING VP Index Plus LargeCap Port
LCV 30% pick of the 2 Growth & Income funds
SC? 20% ING T. Rowe Price Diver Mid Cap Gr-I
INT 30% ING JPMorgan Int'l Port-Init

Perhaps you can petition the administrator to get a real small cap fund and/or small cap value.

Good luck,

-Tom