Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Given your age -- Growth, Growth and Income, and Aggressive growth are good choices.


Now you begin to see why I'm not a fan of "mutual funds" or company IRA's.... Wouldn't you sleep better if you actually KNEW what you were invested in?? Rhetorical question so don't respond. Not to mention there are all manor of fees and expenses that support just about everyone on the planet except you! UGH! I truly hate them -- but they're still far better than doing nothing... and there are tax advantages etc. so just roll with it.

Originally Posted by captainofiron

What do you guys look for in 401k mutual funds?

My new employer has a pretty good number of funds we can select. My old job only had target date funds at decade intervals.

I looked at their charts, expense ratio, trailing returns and the percentages as far as stock/bonds/cash

Anything else I missed?

I selected 6 at 15% and 1 at 10%

they have different categories, like growth, income, bonds, growth/income, aggressive growth

I picked 3 out of the growth, and 4 out of aggressive growth

quite a few of the funds dont have a ticker, so I really didnt know how to research them

[captainofiron]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Given your age -- Growth, Growth and Income, and Aggressive growth are good choices.


Now you begin to see why I'm not a fan of "mutual funds" or company IRA's.... Wouldn't you sleep better if you actually KNEW what you were invested in?? Rhetorical question so don't respond. Not to mention there are all manor of fees and expenses that support just about everyone on the planet except you! UGH! I truly hate them -- but they're still far better than doing nothing... and there are tax advantages etc. so just roll with it.

Thanks for the info, yea the funds that we can chose from have pretty high expense ratios compared to my old company (0.8-1% vs 1.3-1.8%), not sure why the difference.

I was able to see the top holdings in each fund, but I guess they didnt want to show the bottom, hahaha

I was just calculating, and at my old job I had a 48% return on my 401k contributions, which are now helping me in my personal IRA,

Originally Posted by dhutton

Given that index funds have been shown to outperform actively managed funds I would have been tempted to stick with simple index funds. After that I would have gone with Vanguard funds if they are available. Their fees and expenses tend to be the lowest in my experience. I would not put any money into anything I can't research or track.

Don

How can I tell if its an Index fund versus managed funds?

I know some of the ones I looked at had the managers listed, but didnt see any that did not.

I can list the ones that do have tickers if necessary.

As far as the bolded part, I had the exact same feeling

[dhutton]

Originally Posted by captainofiron

Thanks for the info, yea the funds that we can chose from have pretty high expense ratios compared to my old company (0.8-1% vs 1.3-1.8%), not sure why the difference.

I was able to see the top holdings in each fund, but I guess they didnt want to show the bottom, hahaha

I was just calculating, and at my old job I had a 48% return on my 401k contributions, which are now helping me in my personal IRA,



How can I tell if its an Index fund versus managed funds?

I know some of the ones I looked at had the managers listed, but didnt see any that did not.

I can list the ones that do have tickers if necessary.

As far as the bolded part, I had the exact same feeling

Generally index funds have the index in their name. Any Vanguard funds on your list of available funds? What company manages your 401k? If the fund lists a manager then it is likely actively managed.

Don

[captainofiron]

Originally Posted by dhutton

Generally index funds have the index in their name. Any Vanguard funds on your list of available funds? What company manages your 401k? If the fund lists a manager then it is likely actively managed.

Don

the 401k is through Baird

We dont have any Vanguards

we have a few Franklin funds, a couple Fidelity funds, Hartford, American Century, Blackrock, Prudential, alot of SSgAs

the only ones that have Index names is SSgA S&P 500 Security lending series, a couple other SSgAs have the Index in their names, but I couldnt find info on those

[dhutton]

Originally Posted by captainofiron

the 401k is through Baird

We dont have any Vanguards

we have a few Franklin funds, a couple Fidelity funds, Hartford, American Century, Blackrock, Prudential, alot of SSgAs

the only ones that have Index names is SSgA S&P 500 Security lending series, a couple other SSgAs have the Index in their names, but I couldnt find info on those

Sounds like you did the best you could with the information available. My wife's 401k is completely blind. She just puts in her money and hopes for the best. Drives me crazy....

Don

[captainofiron]

Originally Posted by dhutton

Sounds like you did the best you could with the information available. My wife's 401k is completely blind. She just puts in her money and hopes for the best. Drives me crazy....

Don

Glad to hear, yea while it sucks that we dont have more options it is nice that they offer a pretty good match, so I'll take that free money thank ya very much, haha

[dhutton]

Originally Posted by captainofiron

Glad to hear, yea while it sucks that we dont have more options it is nice that they offer a pretty good match, so I'll take that free money thank ya very much, haha

Did you research those SSGA funds here:

http://www.ssgafunds.com/

Don