401k plan advice please

[BeerMan]

anyone with experience please PM me. thanks.

[Bandit]

The best piece of advice I can give you is:

Don't ask for financial advice on a hockey fan site.

[Bogey]

Contribute to the max.

Diversify your investments.

[TxKingsfanCC]

What Bogey Man said.

Also take maximum advantage of employers match if any and read the prospectus of the funds you invest in and make sure you're comfortable with what they invest money in.

[HOCKEYAHOLIC]

screw the 401K & donate it all to the hoho fund

[Bogey]

Originally Posted by HOCKEYAHOLIC

screw the 401K & donate it all to the hoho fund

Do it, and resemble this in the future:

[BleedingPurple]

Originally Posted by Bogey Man

Contribute to the max.

Diversify your investments.

What he said. Always at least contribute as much as your employer will much otherwise you're throwing away free money.

Diversify and don't move things around too often.

[homersimps]

I heard Enron is a sound investment.

[Winsomemore]

Here's how I have mine set up:

The company I work for, Cameron, matches up to 6% (yes, that's pretty good) so I put 6% into the 401k.

Diversified as follows:
10% Bond Funds
10% Foreign Funds
20% Cash Funds
20% Cameron stock
40% U.S. Stock Funds

Let's break 'em down:

Bond Funds:
PIMCO Total Return Admin

Foreign Funds:
American Funds EuroPacific Gr A

Cash Funds:
PRIMCO Stable Value Fund

Cameron stock:
Self explanitory.

U.S. Stock Funds:
American Funds Washington Mutual
State Street S&P 500
American Funds Growth Fund
Franklin Balance Sheet
Lord Abbett

Performance:

The Cash and Bond funds have most always realized a return although not a lot.

The U.S. stock funds have totally sucked lately (there's a shocker). Will probably move some over to Cash/Bond Funds soon. Or maybe not.

Foreign Funds has sucked since the beginning. May get out of those too.

Cameron Stock: It split earlier this year and has been up and down but steadily increasing (we do oil and gas exploration and extraction).

Summarize:

With 60% of the 401k in U.S. stocks and the overall economic picture in the U.S. being shakey my actual rate of return for the last year was around 7%.

Hope this helps.

[KingsJohn/Obediah]

Invest in your 401K up to the max your employer matches and not a penny more. Put the rest in a Roth IRA

[Yog S'loth]

Originally Posted by KingsJohn/Obediah

Invest in your 401K up to the max your employer matches and not a penny more. Put the rest in a Roth IRA

The best, most simple advice.

[Birdman]

Originally Posted by KingsJohn/Obediah

Invest in your 401K up to the max your employer matches and not a penny more. Put the rest in a Roth IRA

And Diversify the hell out of both.

[KickEm]

I prefer the traditional IRA to the Roth.

[KingsJohn/Obediah]

Originally Posted by KickEm

I prefer the traditional IRA to the Roth.

Just out of curiosity....Why?

[Yog S'loth]

If you have a 401(k), the traditional IRA is out anyway. Plus the income caps are so low, very few people really even qualify for it.

[KickEm]

Originally Posted by KingsJohn/Obediah

Just out of curiosity....Why?

Traditional lets you take a tax credit the year you invest, making it easier to set aside money (or more of it) you might not do otherwise. Plus when you take your IRA distributions (taxable for the traditional), you will most likely be at a lower tax bracket than when you contributed. It all comes down to when you want to pay the tax, now or later.