Are there any financial "experts" on here . . .

[Baba]

. . . that could help me with my 401k portfolio planning?

I basically have no % of the funds investing towards any specific sectors, it's just straight contributions from me and my employer. I know less than nothing about this, as you can see, lol.

 

[sleewell]

in all seriousness doesn't your 401k company have a fund where you say when you want to retire and it builds the contributions around that date? or do they have funds that are based on your comfort level for risk / aggressiveness ? i think you want to be more aggressive if you have 20+ years until retirement and then get more conservative as you get closer to when you want to retire. they also should have someone available to help you, we usually have free yearly meetings with our 401k company.

 

[Whizzinby]

Full disclaimer: seek financial guidance from a professional

That said, a good read is A Random Walk Down Wallstreet. Not too stuffy, very well regarded, and can arm you with some sound investing principles. (Principally, you can’t beat the market, primarily invest in large cap index funds)

Most 401ks now offer Target Retirement funds based on age groups. You could do way worse than those. I don’t use it in my plan, because I have solid S&P500 and bond funds available that I’m comfortable managing allocations to, but Target Funds are really easy, and quibbling over a percentage point here or there in potential returns is ignoring that your biggest hurdle in retirement savings is under funding your portfolio.

What are your current contributions getting invested in?

 

[fretworn]

There is only one miracle in the entire universe, which is the time value of money.

 

[Bruce]

If you want to learn how to lose 20% of your money in a year, follow me.


But really, follow a good large cap domestic index fund with no or very low costs and fees. Get in young and hit em hard and it'll be really hard to lose long term.

 

[DrewJD82]

@andergtr can most likely give some pointers, he's smart in the head when it comes to dollars.

 

[andergtr]

@andergtr can most likely give some pointers, he's smart in the head when it comes to dollars.

thanks. i would tell you to find a good financial advisor. i was a sell-side trader in the bond market for 17 years and now i run the top burger truck in los angeles after getting out of wall street.

the big thing to keep in mind is that any advice you get should be tailored FOR YOUR SITUATION. that means the advisor should ask you about investment objectives, tolerance for risk, liquidity concerns, and basically figuring out the suitability of anything for you.

ANYONE who tells you to just willy nilly invest in something is a fucking idiot. it doesn't work that way and never did. that's called gambling and it isn't investing.