Shankar Prasad <shankar_v_prasad[at]hotmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

I would put it all into VIIX and invest in small caps outside of the
fund. The election won't have much effect on stock prices.

Interest rates are too low to invest in bonds right now. Rates should be
up in a year or two.

--
Ron

shankar_v_prasad[at]hotmail.com (Shankar Prasad) writes:

- quote -

You've not really given enough of a picture to be
helpful in making investment decisions. Do you have
any substantial savings outside of the 401k? Do
you own the home? etc. etc.

Inasmuch as you are asking about how to take a huge
wad of cash and deploy it into, mainly, equity funds,
have you reviewed your overall asset allocation and
come to any plan as to what percentage of your investments
should be in cash, stock, bonds, etc.?

That said, there are some very well-regarded funds in your plan.

You're 37. If the 401k money is solely for your retirement
(as it likely should), you've got a huge long time horizon.
Assuming you have the rest of your financial world in
order (ie. emergency fund, house downpayment dealt with, etc)
you can probably afford to be fairly aggressive with this.
Not "aggressive" in the sense of "dump it all into tech
stocks" but rather "aggressive" in the sense of asset
allocation and, in all likelihood, having most of it in
equities. Your concerns about the election cycle and
macro econ issues smack of market timing. This is long-term
money and, in fact, you'll be likely adding to it a little
at a time for a long time, so market timing is not really
what you want to focus on. Rather, you should be concerned
more with asset allocation and diversification.

As I said, several of those funds you listed are very
well regarded. I'd recommend reading more about them
over at, say, Morningstar. Not for the star ratings -
ignore those - but for their analysts' writeups.

Between your market-timing concerns and your interest in
playing the 401k loan game with this, it seems that you
have some desire to play "active investor". There's nothing
wrong with that. But don't do it with your retirement
stakes. Find an appropriate asset allocation, build that
portfolio and, hopefully build it so you can set it and
forget it. Just check the balance every once in a while
and rebalance if it's way out of whack. And _separately_
from all of that, open up a brokerage account with some
play money. It could even be an IRA account if you want to make
transactions not have to be taxable events. And with that
play money, play. You'll get the playing out of your
system and in the meantime, your retirement money will be
humming along.


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Hi

Given that my previous plan to loan out some money from 401K has
not worked out, I am thinking that perhaps the 401K must be
repositioned in a better way. My long term goals for the future
are for 401K growth for retirement - there are no plans for
early 401K withdrawals or loans etc. I am 37, wife does not work,
contribute max to 401K with a 4% employer match.

The various funds available to me in 401K are:
CMPXX - Nations Cash Reserve
WATFX - WAM Core Portfolio
VBAIX - Vanguard Balanced Index
GSTIX - Goldman Sachs Strategic Growth
FCNTX - Fidelity Contrafund
VIIIX - Vanguard Institutional Index
SSHFX - SoundShore
LLPFX - Longleaf Partners
CMSCX - Columbia Small Cap Growth Fund
NBGEX - N&B Genesis Trust
FDIVX - Fidelity Diversified Intl Fund
PIFIX - PIMCO Innovation

I am currently invested 5% in each of VIIX, SSHFX, LLPFX
and 85% in CMPXX. I would appreciate any suggestions on
good choices from the above. I am worried about volatility
in the current election year and other macroeconomic
scenario.

I need to rebalance the portfolio using some (or all) of the
above funds as well decide on a suitable allocation for future
contributions.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

-- Shankar
shankar_v_prasd[at]hotmail.com