No, I meant what are your total choices and your alternatives.

"Kevin" <co_big_cheese[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
newsDaMc.1244$Eu.34620[at]news.uswest.net...
- quote -

When he said, " is this the entire universe of your 401k" I took it to mean
all of "my" investments.

It is certainly not all of the investments I can choose from. There are
numerous others I can choose, these are just the ones I have $$ in.

How can this be? The law requires that the plan have a money market, CD or
some kind of cash fund. It surprises me that you would have TWO
international funds. Surely you have other funds from which to choose.

Elizabeth Richardson

"Kevin" <co_big_cheese[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ujRLc.29$Xt6.8058[at]news.uswest.net...
- quote -

yup.....

"BMS" <mcfarland[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5_ELc.140417$IQ4.92489[at]attbi_s02...
- quote -

Are these the entire universe of your 401k?

- quote -

Kevin wrote:
- quote -

Principal funds a client had also gotten into this past year, looking it
up, and she had also done about 25% , if memory serves.
this year is another story however, as you've seen.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford

Kevin wrote:
- quote -

Kevin,
If you were invested in mostly stock mutual funds, 27% returns for 2003
are definitely possible...expected, really. If you were in small-cap
mutual funds, those returns are actually well below average. Remember
stocks had dipped quite a bit by early 2003 so the full-year returns
were really high across the board. Here are the 2003 returns for a few
benchmark indices:

Category - index - total return
Large-cap US stocks - S&P 500 - 28.7%
(Dow similar - 28.3%)
Small-cap US stocks - Russell 2000 - 47.2%
Large-cap International Stocks - MSCI-EAFE - 35.3%
Real Estate funds - 36.8%
Avg all Taxable Bond funds - 7.7%

Source: Lipper Inc. data reported in the Wall St Journal Jan 8 2004

[Skip: insert comment regarding index funds here... =)]

-Tad

- quote -


Here are my best two holdings in my Roth IRAs:

Buffalo Small Cap, BUFSX
YTD: 15.5%
1 year: 43.78%
5 year: 21.88%
Expense ratio: 1.01%

Fidelity Japan Smaller Companies, FJSCX
YTD: 20.60
1 year: 67.06
5 year: 3.96
Expense ratio: 1.12%

I think I read that wrong. That 27% includes my contributions I think. 27%
just didn't sound right to me either.

According to the site:
Q: What is rate of return?
A: This is the combined percentage change, net of all fees, weighted
by timing and amount of transactions of your individual investment options
over the time period of this report. It takes into consideration deposits,
transfers, withdrawals, expenses, and unit value changes or earnings
credited at the time of the calculation. Past performance does not predict
future results.


"HW "Skip" Weldon" <skip5700removethis[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:rs2tf0dkpobe30tpg6rj7v13ittt1jp8e3[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

On 21 Jul 2004 15:25:04 GMT, "Kevin" <co_big_cheese[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

I'd say we need you to advise us. <grin
-HW "Skip" Weldon
Columbia, SC

- quote -

Personalized Rate of Return from 01/01/2004 through 07/20/2004

Investment Balance Rate of Return
Principal Bond and Mortgage Separate Account 2.02 %
Neuberger Berman Focus Tr Fund -11.11 %
Strong Opportunity Fund 5.19 %
Vanguard Health Care Fund 1.37 %
Principal International Small Company Separate Account 6.18 %
Vanguard International Growth Fund 1.69 %
Total 1.15%

According to the site, I made 27% with those last year, this year I'm at
1.15%

A couple of things you can do. Post your choices and get a wide range of
opinions. All good, bad and ugly. Somebody might even provide some
Morningstar ratings. www.morningstar.com

Look at the web site and see if one of the tools they offer is asset
allocation. Look for recommendations based on "lifestyle", that is how far
you are from retirement.

Go get a some material like a Random Walk Down Wall Street and educate
yourself.

Also, pay attention to your benefits department, the old days of the only
advice they could offer was no advice is over and more comprehensive
participant education is coming out.


"Kevin" <co_big_cheese[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:L8cLc.24$lg6.11443[at]news.uswest.net...
- quote -


======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
Please trim the post to which you respond.

My company switched over to Principal Financial for our 401K a few years
back. They had a little seminar where we all filled out forms and gave us
some options on how to re-invest the money. With this change came the
ability to view our accounts online and make all sorts of changes. I really
try not to ever do more than check in on it once in a while. But once in a
while I check in and see one of my inevstments just pretty much tanking over
say a 6 month period.

For example I have 15% of my contributions (and 15% of my balance) invested
in Neuberger Berman Focus Tr Fund, which since the 1st of the year is
apparently at -12.49%. Although I do see that over 10 yrs this fund has
produced +11.75%. If I'm reading the info right.

I guess I have been of the opinion that it's probably best to just leave
things alone, and it will work itself out in the long run (I turn 30 next
month), or should I be taking a more proactive approach and talking to an
account rep? I really feel as though when we made the change that we didn't
get much/any good advice on how to invest and I haven't really spent the
time yet to research my different funds. They kind of just recommended
different "packages" and I haven't really varied much from that.

Any advice?

Thanks.