soaking it up

[sodonewithit]

I have a substantial amount in a money market fund within my 401k. About 40% of it. Got some terrible advice from an ultra conservative friend 20 years ago. Well I did some calculations and found had I invested in an index fund 20 years ago, I would have 150K more in my retirement fund. Sheeze. On ME though.

Anyway, retiring in 6 months but still playing long game with my 401 (although I will roll it over to something with more options when I retire).

Looking at putting half of the money market stable value fund into Vanguard 500 Index and half into a bond/stock mix TRP retirement fund.

My question here is do I wait till after the election in November to see where the market goes to reevaluate my choices?

thanks

[DS]

You've already gone through the effect of waiting once. Why wait any longer? There were many elections during those 20 years.

[RangerOne]

The beauty of a diversified index fund based portfolio is you basically don't have to "reevaluate" anything based on the market, current events, news or anything.

Just select a portfolio that suits your risk tolerance. ie picking your ratio of stocks/bonds. Maybe splitting among international and domestic variants.

People do re-balance. But this is generally to make sure your holding don't drift from your target numbers. Which they naturally will do because of uneven growth. You do this yearly.

So the right time to do any of this is now. No need to wait. No need to look at trends. Trends will only scare you.

[sodonewithit]

I just can't seem to pull the trigger, especially since I will be rolling over to an IRA in 6 months.

Argh! Does anyone have a crystal ball?

[Mississippi Mudstache]

I just can't seem to pull the trigger, especially since I will be rolling over to an IRA in 6 months.

That has nothing to do with anything. If it makes you feel better, move x% a month into a diversified portfolio, but don't string it out over more than a year.

[DS]

I just can't seem to pull the trigger, especially since I will be rolling over to an IRA in 6 months.

That has nothing to do with anything. If it makes you feel better, move x% a month into a diversified portfolio, but don't string it out over more than a year.

Hmm well in 6 months it's tax day, and 6 months later it's the off-year elections, and then 6 months later it's............20 years later and you missed out on $150,000.

[Stimpy]

I just can't seem to pull the trigger, especially since I will be rolling over to an IRA in 6 months.

Argh! Does anyone have a crystal ball?

I do and it says your gonna wait, and wait, and wait and lose all the gains.

Prove me wrong?   After all it might do down in the short run, but in the long run??????  Worst investor in the world is still a millionaire today!

[sodonewithit]

Ouch. You guys give no quarter. And none expected.

Long view. Making the transfers right away.