Wanting to personalize my 457(b)

[MrMike]

I'm not very knowledgeable about investing but I'm trying to pick it up. I am 43 and I plan on retiring with a pension in 6 years.  I currently have $140k in my work 457(b).  I have it in a target date account for 2030 even though I am planning on leaving in 2022.  I figured it would give me a little more risk that I comfortable with since I have a pension.  However I'd like to move it into a personalized portfolio since I'd like to get more involved with my investments.  It doesn't seem like my plan has a lot of options though.

Here are the available options:

BlackRock High Yield Bond Instl

DFA Emerging Markets Small Cap I

DFA Real Estate Securities I

Dodge & Cox International Stock

Metropolitan West Total Return Bond I

Vanguard Institutional Index I

Vanguard Mid Cap Index Ins

Vanguard Small Cap Index Instl


I'm thinking of moving my investments to the three Vanguard funds and possibly a small percentage in the Real Estate Securites.

[MDM]

Target date funds can be perfectly reasonable vehicles, even for experienced investors.

What are the expense ratios for all of your options?

[DrF]

I'd treat the pension as a bond (guaranteed money). Then I'd have no problem with you either putting 100% to the 3 vanguard funds in any allocation you desire (any combination would be fine). Or you could simply swap your money into the longest target date fund available (like 2055 or something).

Are you maxing $18k into your 457?

[bortman]

Picking up on both DrF's and MDM's comments ...

In my 457b -- which is so similar to yours that I thought we may work for the same employer -- I was 100% in a Vanguard target fund until they made the Vanguard Institutional Index (VIIIX, in my case) available.So, I went 100% in VIIIX. All the Vanguard target funds in my 457b have 0.10 expense ratio, but VIIIX is 0.02, so I made the switch.

VIIIX is similar to VTSAX. Take a look this ..

http://jlcollinsnh.com/2011/06/14/what-we-own-and-why-we-own-it/

Then take a look at the 'stock series'. It brought a lot of MMM philosophy into focus for me.

http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

BTW, I'm 44 and shooting to FIRE in ~5 years

Like MRM, I also see your pension as a bond fund. I get my bonds elsewhere in my portfolio right now, but I consider my pensions as bonds.

[MrMike]

Thanks for the info!  Sorry for the delay in replying.  Been awhile since I've checked. I've decided to go 80% stocks with 20% bonds.

I settled on 60% Vanguard Large-Cap, 5% Vanguard Mid-Cap and 15% Small-Cap.

And yes I'm putting the max $18k in my 457.

Thanks again@