Where would you invest 401K funds today?
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Anonymous
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Curious--I have a new job and did not have a 401K at my old one, so I am in the unusual situation of putting the entire $18,500 in over the next three months. Obviously these are interesting times to be getting into the market, but I'm still 25 years out from retirement so am comfortable with putting the cash in anyway.
Wondering how you would allocate that money in today's market, though. Right now I'm leaning towards keeping more of it in low-yield but safer investment options (bonds, money market, etc.) to see how things shake out--but is it just as beneficial to jump into some of the mutual funds given where the market is right now? Normally I'd be investing this money monthly over the course of the year so would have risk spread out evenly and wouldn't worry about the ups and downs, but in this case I'll be all in over a very short window, so just interested in knowing which funds others might look to. This is with Vanguard. |
Anonymous
| All in stocks. S&p fund or total market fund. |
Anonymous
+1 You're getting in on a sale. Be happy. |
Anonymous
| 100% in stock - u have a long horizon |
Anonymous
| Vtsax |
Anonymous
A sale? Okkkk |
Anonymous
Yes. If you started buying in January you would have been buying at increasingly higher prices (fewer shares) all year long, up until this week. As of today all of 2018's gains are wiped out, so you can buy at the lowest prices we've seen this year. That's a sale. |
Anonymous
OP here. This assumes we are at or near the bottom, though. I'm not convinced that's the case--hence my hesitation to go all in on stocks. I did already have VTSAX in my tentative mix, though, so may boost that up and pull the percent that was going to bonds (since I'm also not feeling so bullish on those right now!) I also have some set to go into their target retirement and balanced index funds, which have some exposure to both stocks and bonds already. |
Anonymous
No, it just states the facts: it's cheaper than it was earlier this year. I think we're going down further (not necessarily immediately), but that doesn't change the fact that stocks are on sale as compared to 2018 thus far. |
Anonymous
You talk beautifully but you still have 25 years to go and it’s only 18.5k. I don’t know if you need to be super analytical. |
Anonymous
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You're 25 years out. Don't overthink it.
With, for example, a 6 percent average return, you'd get a 330 percent return over 25 years. Don't worry whether the market will go up or down 5 or 10 percent over the next few months (not that you can predict it). 100 percent stocks is reasonable. So's 70 percent stocks, 30 percent bonds, or anywhere in between. Pick what you're comfortable with and check it once a year or so. So try to make sure you are in low cost funds. That's a predictable cost that will add up over time. |
Anonymous
True. I am way behind on retirement, though, so only have around $160K total saved (only started maxing it out in the last few years)--thus this feels like a lot to be throwing into one place all at once! (I'm also new to Vanguard and not super familiar with their funds yet, so still learning what's what there.) |
Anonymous
| Just put it in a Target Retirement fund and be done with it. Let a professional manage it for you. |
Anonymous
this |
Anonymous
+1 No reason to do anything other than Target Retirement fund, unless you're an investing pro |