Age: 24 Investment Profile: extremely agressive % of Salary Contributed: 11% Company Match: 100% match for the first 4% of contributions, vested immediately. Other Retirement Vehicles Used: brokerage stock account, ROTH IRA, pension
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October 2007 Allocation:
401k Distrbution: Company Stock 5% Company Stock Fund Large Cap Blend 40% S&P 500 Index Fund Foreign 30% Dodge & Cox International Stock 10% Oppenheimer Small Cap Discovery Global 5% Oakmark Global Fund Bonds/Managed Income 10% Fixed Income Index Plus
Message edited by: Azurik on 2007-10-03 17:01:16 CDT
Age: 27 Investment Profile: extremely aggressive Salary Contributed: maximum limit Company Match: none Other Savings: Roth IRA, Trad IRA, Solo 401(k), Stock "slush fund"
Distribution:
50% Large Cap 23% International 15% Mid Cap 9% Small Cap 3% Other (RE, Wood)
I suspect it's too simplistic to just have a strategy for your 401(k) and exclude the rest of your assets, so my thinking is:
1. My investment timeline is roughly 25 years. I'm not worried about short-term blips or dips. I AM worried about maximizing the number under the exponent, which means I care a lot more about contributing now than I will in 15 or 20 years.
2. Statistically the US stock indices are great long-term vehicles with no thought or effort required.
3. The financial health of a lot of regions seems bound to improve enormously in the next 25 years. (I like Latin America and Asia-Pacific.)
4. I allocate a small percentage of my dollars to investing in individual US stocks in industries that I know well -- in my case, software and insurance.
My metric for success/goal is to try to beat the US indices by 2% per year. So far that's been no problem, though I realize that I'm probably getting lucky.
This is actually for a TSP account (similar to a 401k) Age: 28 % of Salary Contributed: 75% (no, not a typo) Company Match: no match Other Retirement Vehicles Used: Roth IRA
Presently trying to push as much money into TSP as I can, which within the year should find its way into my Roth IRA after a rollover and a conversion.
Age:24 Investment Profile:Aggresive Growth % of Salary Contributed:Maximum Company Match:50% of the first 6% contributed Other Retirement Vehicles Used:Rollover IRA, Roth IRA
jayK said:sdeals said:Age: 27 Investment Profile: N/A % of Salary Contributed: none Company Match: 10% of contributions / 5yrs vesting schedule Other Retirement Vehicles Used: none
401k Distrbution: N/AI'm curious, what's your rationale for giving up that free 10%?
I think I can do better elsewhere. Seriously though, I truly believe that I will be in a higher/same tax bracket at retirement (+ less deductions).
Actually, I need funds for business investments in order to build wealth. Hopefully, the investments are going to pay off so I can catch up on retirement.
Age: 35 Investment Profile: not sure % of Salary Contributed: 8% Company Match: 135% match for the first 6% of contributions, vested immediately. Plus 3% profit sharing
401k Distrbution: Large Company Stock 36.9% Small Company Stock 19.8% International Stock 16.8% Other 13.3% Bonds 13.2%
Personal Rate of Return* during this Period (04/06/2004-04/06/2006: 26.3%
Message edited by: mofunk2006 on 2006-04-06 14:16:35 CDT
FatFreddie said:<<..the US stock indices are great long-term vehicles with no thought or effort required.>>
Watch out - that kind of "sure thing" thinking can be dangerous. Sometimes it pays to bet against the herd, especially when the herd is a stampede.
Invest in yourself - your education & career. Save, save, save and live debt-free.
A very legitimate point. That sentence was poorly phrased. I meant to suggest that investing in the indices is trivial and requires little effort. Fortunately, pretty much the only effort required is simply verifying that the markets are not evaporating. Fortunately, too, if that were to happen, everyone would know about it and most of us would be screwed, "against the herd" or no.
I disagree with the "live debt-free" statement. Selective debt acquisition can have a wonderful long-term positive expectation.
sdeals said:jayK said:sdeals said:Age: 27 Investment Profile: N/A % of Salary Contributed: none Company Match: 10% of contributions / 5yrs vesting schedule Other Retirement Vehicles Used: none
401k Distrbution: N/AI'm curious, what's your rationale for giving up that free 10%?
I think I can do better elsewhere. Seriously though, I truly believe that I will be in a higher/same tax bracket at retirement (+ less deductions).
Actually, I need funds for business investments in order to build wealth. Hopefully, the investments are going to pay off so I can catch up on retirement.
I don't get your answer...you can do better than getting a free 10%? Where else can you get free money?
Age: 35 Investment Profile: extremely agressive % of Salary Contributed: 14% Company Match: 50% on 1st 6%, vested immediately. Other Retirement Vehicles Used: pension
401k Distrbution:
35% LifeCycle 2040 (up 5.4%) 35% LifeCycle 2030 (up 6.2%) 10% Non-US Developed Markets Fund (up 11.6%) 10% US Small Cap Stock Fund (up 12.0%) 10% Non US Emerging Markets Fund 200 (up 15.2%)
My year to date rate of return is 8.1% which is good compared to last year, but I'm really thinking about putting more of a % into the non-us funds.
Also considering adding money to a self directed brokerage within the 401k.
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