First of all, if the employer is matching dollar-for-dollar with no limit, that's
HUGE! Under that circumstance, paying more than the absolute minimum on your student loans makes no sense whatsoever, and in fact you should even consider switching to the lowest-monthly-payment repayment plan you can possibly find. By prioritizing paying off student loans instead of contributing to the 401K, you're literally picking a 2-7% return instead of a 100%+ return!
Shovel every cent you can into that thing until your employer wises up! If you can, max it out!Second, I agree with the general principle that at your age, you should be at 100% stocks or close to it. IMO, you certainly don't need bonds if you have debt since paying off the debt is like investing in bonds.
Third, although those Vanguard index funds are
probably your best bet, since you didn't post the expense ratios for each fund it's impossible for us to know for sure. (It's a shady thing to do, but it's possible your 401K plan administrator could be adding its own fee on top of Vanguard's.)
Assuming the expense ratios aren't being screwed with, I'd suggest something like the following:
simple portfolio:
- 70-90% Vanguard 500 Index
- 10-30% Vanguard Total Int ST Index
fancy portfolio with less large-cap & US tilt than above:
- 50% Vanguard 500 Index
- 20% Vanguard Mid Cap Index
- 5% Vanguard Small Cap Index
- 20% Vanguard Total Int ST Index
- 5% Vanguard Em Mkts St Index
The second portfolio should be higher risk and higher potential return than the first, but do a bunch of research and understand what you're doing before picking it. If in doubt, stick with the simple portfolio, which is perfectly adequate.