Thanks for the responses so far. I'm seeing that I just need to do some more in-depth reading to determine how comfortable I am with foregoing international stocks.
@GrOW: I'll add expenses when I have time available to do so.
A conservative portfolio has more bonds than an aggressive portfolio. So if you want to be aggressive, show it in your bond allocation rather than the equity funds you select.
I agree. This is why I only have 5% bonds.
I'm also worried you're my financial advisor is picking by past performance, and picking aggressive past performance.
One of the problems with active funds is that their costs tend to be larger than their performance.
I agree. These are the concerns that led me to start this thread.
I'd say 100% VG 500 in the 401k and forget about it until you are close to FIRE. If you want intl or bonds you can put those in your taxable or IRA.
Bond allocation is light. May fit your risk profile though. Also it's hard to tell if some of the funds have some bond holdings. Check out Morningstar's portfolio X-ray feature for a free easy way to analyze your whole portfolio. If still 5%, it fits in my comment above. Think about reducing complexity.
I agree with reducing complexity. I will use the Morningstar tool, but my understanding based on the short descriptions of the funds is that I have 95% equities, 5% bonds in this plan.
I'm not sure whether I'm comfortable going 100% stocks, though perhaps it would be best to be 100% stocks in this plan and hold a small percentage of bonds elsewhere.
Anybody have recommendations for reading on choosing 100% stocks versus including a small bond allocation? I'm sure I want the vast majority in equities but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with holding no bonds whatsoever. I haven't learned enough to know whether my being uncomfortable without bonds is rational.
Also-- I would be more comfortable going all in on the Vanguard fund if it were VTSAX. If I were to go 100% Vanguard 500, wouldn't I be missing out on a significant portion of the US stock market? If so, does that matter?
Again, thanks for the input. I'm completely on board with the Boglehead index fund philosophy but I don't know enough to attempt to implement it when my choices are constrained by my employer's plan.