Help choosing 401(k) investments

[D4NIM4L]

Hey everyone! My wife has a meeting tomorrow with her investment adviser at her new job to setup her
401(k). At her prior job she was investing everything into a Vanguard target retirement 2045 fund.
With her new plan there is no option like that, and the options don't seem to be great (at least
compared to prior). Here is a list of funds along with associated expense ratios taken from
morningstar.

Stable Value:
Guaranteed Income Fund

Fixed Income:
American century ginnie mae inv - 0.53
AB High income advisor - 0.58
Prudential Total Return Bond Z - 0.58
Oppenheimer senior floating rate a - 0.97

Balanced:
American funds capital income bldr r4 - 0.67

Large Cap Stock:
Invesco diversified dividend y - 0.58
JPMorgan disciplined equity sel - 0.79
vanguard ftse social index inv - 0.27
vanguard value index adm - 0.09
american funds amcap r4 - 0.71
vanguard growth index adm - 0.09

Mid Cap Stock:
MFS Mid cap value r3 - 1.22
AB Discovery growth A - 1.04
Neuberger Berman Genesis TR - 1.10
Oppenheimer Main Stret Mid Cap Y - 0.84
Eaton Vance Atlanta Capital SMID-Cap A - 1.23

Small Cap Stock:
JPMorgan small cap value select- 0.99
JPMorgan us small company sel - 1.00
Franklin Small Cap Growth A - 1.20
Vanguard Small Cap value index admiral - 0.09
Eagle Small Cap Growth A - 1.11
Vanguard Small Cap growth index admiral - 0.09

International Stock:
Federated International Leaders Instl - 0.96
Delaware Emerging markets A - 1.69
Hartford International Small company y - 0.99

Specialty:
Fidelity Advisor Health Care I - 0.81
Goldman Sachs commodity strategy A - 0.88
Prudential global real estate Z - 0.97

Unfortunately there are only the 4 Vanguard options with a low expense ratio. What would be the best option for some of these other asset classes? Int'l stock, for example, has 0.96 as its lowest expense ratio! Obviously it won't be the whole portfolio, but is it even worth putting that in at that point? Some of the bond funds have a decent expense ratio at 0.55 and 0.58. We would not necessarily be opposed to putting it all into the 4 Vanguard funds, but would that diversify us enough? We can then change our IRA investments to balance it out more if necessary.

Also, we are in our early 30's and probably 20 years from retirement.

Thank you for the help! Please let me know what other info I need to supply.

[GGNoob]

What options do you have available in other investment accounts? You could invest in the Vanguard funds in her account, and get exposure to bonds and international through your 401k and/or both of your IRA accounts.

[TomTX]

What's your total amount invested? There's really no point in diversifying into multiple funds unless you're over $50k.

Low cost is much more important. Pick one of the Vanguard funds for the 401k, "diversify" in your IRAs.

[forummm]

There is little overlap between the value and growth funds for large and small cap. To approximate the market cap weighting you could put something like
40 vanguard value index adm - 0.09
40 vanguard growth index adm - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap value index admiral - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap growth index admiral - 0.09

Then hold the bonds and intl in other accounts (your 401k, either of your IRAs, or taxable). Ideally don't put the bonds in taxable.

[GGNoob]

There is little overlap between the value and growth funds for large and small cap. To approximate the market cap weighting you could put something like
40 vanguard value index adm - 0.09
40 vanguard growth index adm - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap value index admiral - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap growth index admiral - 0.09

Then hold the bonds and intl in other accounts (your 401k, either of your IRAs, or taxable). Ideally don't put the bonds in taxable.

+1

This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

[D4NIM4L]

Thank you everyone for the replies. The forum is on the fritz right now, its taken me awhile to get in!

What options do you have available in other investment accounts? You could invest in the Vanguard funds in her account, and get exposure to bonds and international through your 401k and/or both of your IRA accounts.

No 401(k) available for me, we each have an IRA.

What's your total amount invested? There's really no point in diversifying into multiple funds unless you're over $50k.

Low cost is much more important. Pick one of the Vanguard funds for the 401k, "diversify" in your IRAs.

We have over 110K combined right now. We are not going to move her old 401(k) to this account, probably move it to an IRA.

There is little overlap between the value and growth funds for large and small cap. To approximate the market cap weighting you could put something like
40 vanguard value index adm - 0.09
40 vanguard growth index adm - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap value index admiral - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap growth index admiral - 0.09

Then hold the bonds and intl in other accounts (your 401k, either of your IRAs, or taxable). Ideally don't put the bonds in taxable.

Thanks! That looks like a good plan. It will be more work for me to balance than compared to what we had before (the target retirement fund) in her account. But we will make it work. Thank you again everyone!

Dan

[Jeremy E.]

I'd put 50% in Vanguard Value Index Fund Admiral Shares (VVIAX)
and 50% in Vanguard Growth Index Fund Admiral Shares (VIGAX)
I wouldn't worry about small cap, and being 20 years from retirement, I wouldn't even hold bonds.
I also wouldn't hold international funds for the reasons in the following post
http://jlcollinsnh.com/2012/09/26/stocks-part-xi-international-funds-2/
Good luck in whatever you choose!

[forummm]

There is little overlap between the value and growth funds for large and small cap. To approximate the market cap weighting you could put something like
40 vanguard value index adm - 0.09
40 vanguard growth index adm - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap value index admiral - 0.09
10 Vanguard Small Cap growth index admiral - 0.09

Then hold the bonds and intl in other accounts (your 401k, either of your IRAs, or taxable). Ideally don't put the bonds in taxable.

Thanks! That looks like a good plan. It will be more work for me to balance than compared to what we had before (the target retirement fund) in her account. But we will make it work. Thank you again everyone!

Dan

It would be fine to just rebalance once a year. Or even less frequently. And you could skip the small cap if you want. But personally I would include it.

If she has an old 401k, either just leave it in the old 401k or roll it into a Vanguard traditional IRA (not into the new 401k). That will give you options more along the lines of what you wanted.