The Money Mustache Community

Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: kaleidoscopicalkris on November 17, 2015, 03:47:05 PM

Title: First time with 401k- help?
Post by: kaleidoscopicalkris on November 17, 2015, 03:47:05 PM
I recently was bumped up to full-time at my job and am now eligible for benefits, including 401k. The company will match 4% once I contribute 5%, but I'm not sure how to allocate it. I attatched the part of the page that lists my options for allocation- I'm currently leaning towards putting it all into the %6O T. Rowe Price Retirement 2050 R (I'm 20 years old right now), but I wanted to see if there was a better way to do it. Any suggestions or places I could research it for myself? I'm very inexperienced with investing of any sort and have to have this done and submitted by next Thursday. Thank you all in advance.
Title: Re: First time with 401k- help?
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on November 17, 2015, 03:52:15 PM
You might want to find out what the expense ratios are for those funds. The S&P 500 fund will probably have decent rates, but I'm not familiar with that fund.
Title: Re: First time with 401k- help?
Post by: MDM on November 17, 2015, 03:58:06 PM
You might want to find out what the expense ratios are for those funds. The S&P 500 fund will probably have decent rates, but I'm not familiar with that fund.
+1

Also, recognize that mies is engaging in a bit of understatement - you need to find out what the expense ratios are for those funds if you want to make an informed choice.

If this (https://www.ssgafunds.com/product/fund.seam?ticker=SVSPX) is the index fund in question, and your plan offers it for the same 0.16% shown on that site, it may well be your best choice.  But do check all the fund fees.
Title: Re: First time with 401k- help?
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on November 17, 2015, 05:29:56 PM
.16% is pretty sweet. My 401k S&P 500 fund from Principal charges .3% and that's the lowest cost fund my 401k offers. The target date fund usually have higher fees and don't necessarily perform better than a plain old S&P 500 index fund.