"Jouup" <j.jouu[at]glutwer.nl> wrote:

- quote -

It is not reasonable to drop all of your savings into anything as
non-diversified as an energy fund. It is a recipe for poverty.

-- Doug

"Jouup" <j.jouu[at]glutwer.nl> writes:

- quote -

I'm not sure that in a <$25k portfolio I'd worry too much
about sector funds like Energy (or even in a couple of
portfolios which combine to, say, $75k, though in that
case, you could put the energy fund in one account).

That said, there are other options like ETFs - you'd
pay a brokerage commission to buy in (if you're paying
more than $15 commission, maybe find a better broker!),
but the expense ratios are rock bottom. Examples:
Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE) (note that 30% of its assets
are in only two stocks: XOM and CVX), there's also
the Energy SPDR (XLE) (it also has some 33%+ in just
XOM and CVX). (That should suprise nobody - XOM alone
is just gargantuan.)

Are you sure you really want to overweight energy?

XOM is the largest holding in the SP500 - if you've
got an index fund, you've already got more than 3%
in just that stock alone. Chevron's another 1-1/4%
of that index.

- quote -

You talk to HR. I know you seemed to get a runaround, but
ultimately, they report to the same folks as whoever is
the trustee of the plan and those folks (plus their advisors,
etc at the investment company) are the ones who choose funds
for that 401k.

- quote -

You're not the only one who's figuring that. Prices of
those companies reflect exactly the expectations you
are talking about. That doesn't mean you aren't right
to want to overweight them - but it also doesn't mean
that doing so is a great idea.

Perhaps you'd like to list the funds you do have available
in your 401k and folks here can make some recommendations
amongst them. For what it's worth, I'd lean towards making
the 401k portfolio as "set-it-and-forget-it" as possible -
mine's in a target-retirement-fund - and work with some
other money for "play" (ie. overweighting stuff, etc).
There is an argument for having play money in a tax
favored account (ie. no tax consequences for transactions),
but you mentioned that you have IRAs in addition to the
401k, so perhaps allocate one (small!) portion of one
of those accounts as play money. For the rest - the
vast majority of your retirement money - set up an
appropriate asset allocation (well diversified and
automatic as possible) and just let it do its long-term job.


--
Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed.
No HTML in E-Mail! -- http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
Are you posting responses that are easy for others to follow?
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting

On Jul 10, 7:49 am, "Jouup" <j.j...[at]glutwer.nl> wrote:
- quote -


Often the entry level for IRA plans is a lot lower. Which funds are
you interested in?


- quote -


Very unlikely. My experience has been companies or their HR dept.
don't really want to deal with that. There really is no incentive for
them to make changes unless you can get a large number of your fellow
employees to demand it. Also sector funds are considered to be more
volatile. They also don't want you to put your 401K funds in high
risk areas.


- quote -

On Jul 10, 9:49 am, "Jouup" <j.j...[at]glutwer.nl> wrote:
- quote -

Fidelity's Select Energy Fund (FSENX) and Select Energy Services Fund
(FSESX) have minimum investments of $2,500.

Dave

"Jouup" <j.jouu[at]glutwer.nl> wrote in message
news:5fhiorF34l5u2U1[at]mid.individual.net...

- quote -

The Vanguard energy fund is available as an ETF (ticker symbol: VDE), which
you can buy through any broker in units as small as one share.

situation: family with each member with either roth ira and conventional ira or just
roth ira but in each of the various types of ira accounts, they have balances below
25k individually

is there a fidelity or vanguard fund that allows them to invest in an energy fund with
just 10k balance(s) ? every one that I looked at appeared to require at least 25k to
invest.

also, related to this question is an employer retirement plan 401k. what is the method
to ask the plan administrator to make available an energy investment plan within the
401k? in calling the company HR dept, they have a plan counsel and toll-free service
for the banking institution that administers the plan but these people are not the
money plan makers and noone seems to know who that is. in other words, I can call up
the banking institution and ask anything about my investment selections or get
statements and make changes (which I can do online also) but these people have nothing
to do with the actual investment plans (ie. large cap fund, bond fund, etc.) and they
don't know who runs the plan choices yet the prospectus outlines clearly which
companies are used to run the components inside the 401k - these companies have no
contacts within our HR dept either.

reason, obviously, why I'm asking is that all types of energy is becoming more and
more expensive, with natural gas, oil, fuels, all becoming more expensive and it would
appear to be a sound position long-term to drop all savings into an energy fund or at
least a sizable chunk if possible