I work in Vanguard (disclosure-this is a non work related advice) and
am very familiar with our funds. You may take a look at actively
managed balanced funds that usually have a better track record than
index-based, life style funds with a much lower expense ratio that that
of an industry average. The fact is that Vanguard employes outside
investment managers to manage its actively managed funds and you are
getting service from the best investment minds out there without paying
any loads or unreasonable fees.

Hi. No, most 401k funds *aren't* loaded at all. Or rather, there is no
requirement
that they have a load. My 401k offers many choices, and none have
loads.
I checked one of your funds, AEPGX, and it does have a huge (> 5%)
front-end
load, so you've already lost that money... It is up to the 401k
administrator as
to what funds are available. If Vanguard administered your 401k, you
would have
many no-load funds to choose from.
There is zero correlation between loads and fund quality. Your load
does
nothing to incent or alter the fund function. The load is paid out by
the fund
to whoever persuaded you to buy the fund (ie: in this case the 401k
administrator).
Lots of companies know less than they should about the choices they
have
in 401k administrators. Their choices can have a siginficant effect on
how
well their employees do. I have also heard of venal unscrupulous
companies
that actually get some kickback of fees, treating their 401k plan as a
profit
generator.
Unless you have a very helpful money manager who is hand-holding you
personally through some complicated financial decisions (he pockets
the loads as payment for his advise), there is no reason to throw away
money buying loaded funds.
Joe

I thought most 401k funds were front-end loaded? Or is management fees
different from front-end loads? In my 401k I put my $$ into AEPGX,
FRBSX, AGTHX, SSSPL, AWSHX, and PTRAX. Aren't most of those front-end
loaded? Are they good funds btw?

I haven't looked up any of the funds you've listed. I used to own T
Rowe Balanced and currently own Van Guard's index 500 in my 401k. All
others I will assume others will comment on or you will research on
your own.

My initial comments (worth what you paid for them)- make sure your
wife's Roth is maxed out. If her company puts in 7% no matter what,
she should max out Roth before contributing another dollar to 401k. B
shares mean you pay a load on withdraw? I haven't used loaded funds
before, but if this is true, you will be paying both Oppenheimer and
unlce Sam before you see a dime. Consider putting the $100 your wife
puts into 401k into Roth IRA or a taxable fund instead. Capital gains
taxes on taxable account could be less than fees for load+tax paid on
401k when withdrawing.

I avoid lifestyle funds. I will take the time to research my 401k and
Roth IRA options and review them each year. If you want less
maintainance each year, the lifestyle funds could be considered.

I would figure out how much you want invested in stocks and bonds, then
buy the individual stock funds and individual bond funds needed.

The first thing to stop doing is sending money to a 401k plan
that forces you into loaded funds. That's unconscionable.
I would instead fund your ROTH IRAs to the max first.
Joe

My wife and I are trying to get a better hold on our retirement plan.
We're both in our early 30's, no children (and no plans to have
them), no debt aside from our home, total annual income about 90K.

I put 12% of my pre-tax salary into the company 401K (company matches
20% of every dollar up to 5%), which has a wide choice of funds. My
wife's company automatically puts 7% of her salary into the
company's 401K, which is in Oppenheimer Funds (future contributions
can only be made to B shares) and she can add whatever she wants on top
of the 7% (she currently adds $100 per month) but the additional
contributions are not matched. We also try to fund our Roth IRA's as
best we can. I think we do a good job of saving, but we've got a
major hodge-podge of holdings going right now......

Her Oppenheimer holdings, totaling about $30K, consist of: Cash
Reserve B, Cash Reserve B, Strategic Income A, Main Street Small Cap B,
Main Street Small Cap A, Global Opportunities B, Global Opportunities
A.

My 401K, totaling about $25K, consists of: T Rowe Price Balanced, Royce
Total Return, American Century Income and Growth

We also each have a Roth with Vanguard worth about $6K each, both in
the 500 Idx/Inv. And I have a rollover Roth with Vanguard as well,
about $6K in the 500 Idx/Inv.

There are two big things on my mind now. One is that both of our
company's 401K plans now offer the "lifestyle" funds. I can
choose between three American Century funds....AAAIX, ASAMX and ACCIX.
Her option is Oppenheimer's Quest Balanced Fund B.

I'm wondering if I should consolidate my 401K holdings into the AAAIX
fund (American Century's Aggressive lifestyle fund) and have her
consolidate hers into the Quest Balanced Fund. Then we have the
question of what to do with our Roth's. It looks like we'll be
able to fund them fully this year and I'm not sure it's a good idea
to just keep piling it all into Vanguard's 500 Index or if we should
spread it around to other Vanguard index funds. Should I be putting
12% in my 401K or put less into that and more post-tax money into the
Roth? Should she keep adding $100 per month to her Oppenheimer funds
or put more post-tax money into her Roth? So many questions.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions or thoughts about our
situation. Thanks!