I'm finally able to contribute to a 401(k) through my new company, and would like to solicit other opinions on what you would go with here....or if you have any thoughts/experience with any of the investments listed below. I still have 25 or so years to retirement.


Income

Invesco Stable Asset Fund ER 1.21% AAR 0.98%
PIMCO Total Return Fund – Class A (Intermediate-Term Bond - PTTAX)ER 0.85% AAR 6.61%
DWS Unconstrained Income Fund – Class A (Multisector Bond - KSTAX)ER 1.13% AAR 8.54%
PIMCO Real Return Fund – Class A (Inflation-Protected Bond - PRTNX)ER 0.87% AAR 7.21%
Legg Mason BW Global Opportunities Bond Fun – Class A (World Bond – GOBAX)ER 0.94% AAR 11.14% (began in 2010 so projected)

Growth & Income

American Century Strategic Allocation: Aggressive Fund – Class A (ACVAX) ER 1.46% AAR 6.93%
American Century Strategic Allocation: Moderate Fund – Class A (ACCAX)ER 1.26% AAR 5.53%
American Century Strategic Allocation: Conservative Fund – Class A (ACOAX)ER 1.33% AAR 6.55%

Growth

Invesco Van Kampen Comstock Fund – Class A (Large Value – ACSTX)ER 0.84% AAR 6.59%
Lord Abbett Fundamental Equity Fund – Class A (Large Blend – LDFVX)ER 1.09% AAR 7.55%
SShA S&P 500 Index Securities Lending Series Fund – Class IX ER 0.71% AAR 5.66%
Alger Capital Appreciation Institutional Fund – Class I (Large Growth ALARX)ER 1.17% AAR 9.56%
Delafield Fund, Inc (Mid-Cap Value – DEFIX)ER 1.25% AAR 10.63%
Janus Enterprise Funs – Class S (Mid-Cap Growth – JGRTX)ER 1.19% AAR 15.27% 3yr (began in '09)

Aggressive Growth

Goldman Sachs Small Cap Value Fund – Class A (Small Value – GSSMX)ER 1.46% AAR 9.15%
Victory Small Company Opportunity Fund – Class A (Small Value – SSGSX)ER 1.41% AAR 9.33%
Invesco Small Cap Equity Fund – Class A (Small Blend – SMEAX)ER 1.35% AAR 8.35%
Eagle Small Cap Growth Fund 0 Class A (Small Growth – HRSCX)ER 1.16% AAR 9.12%
Janus Triton Fund – Class S (Small Growth – JGMIX)ER 1.19% AAR 18.03% 3YR (began in 2009)
MFS Research International Fund – Class R2 (Foreign Large Blend – MRSRX)ER 1.45% AAR 5.97%
Oppenheimer International Growth Fund - Class A (Foreign Large Growth – OIGAX)ER 1.36% AAR 9.30%
American Century Global Growth Fund – Class A (World Stock – AGGRX)ER 1.36% AAR 7.55%
Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund – Class A (Diversified Emerging Mkts – ODMAX)ER 1.30% AAR 18.76%


[This message has been edited by p-wonk01 (edited 2/3/2014 3:28p).]

Salary? Match? No roth options?

I'd rather not put my salary on here. I do have the option of a Roth 401(k). I currently have a Roth IRA through personal investing. The company match is 25% up to 5%, so nominal.

Personally, I'd pick the lowest expense ratio fund and put 5% into it to take advantage of the company match, then adjust my other retirement holdings to keep my asset allocation balanced while taking advantage of fees lower than the ones for that list of funds.

In this case, the S&P 500 index looks like a decent fund.

Sounds like you're in your mid-to-late 30s. If I were you I wouldn't waste much time with bonds, short-term investments, income funds, etc for the 401k. I would go with 100% stocks. You can have bonds if you want in your separate investing portfolio, but those aren't going to get you much return above inflation. 401k and saving for retirement is all about investing enough and having enough growth to beat inflation. You've got to stay aggressive to beat inflation, and with 25+ years to go, you have enough time to ride out and recover from stock downturns. Just my 2 cents. I'm in my late 20s and am 100% in stocks for my 401k.

Does the lowest expense ratio fund give you the best performance year in and year out?

And all this time I thought I should be diversifying amongst asset classes and looking at correlation and stock intersection.

[This message has been edited by Nactownag (edited 2/3/2014 1:32p).]

quote:

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Does the lowest expense ratio fund give you the best performance year in and year out?

And all this time I thought I should be diversifying among asset classes and looking at correlation and stock intersection.

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No you idiot. It's all about fees!!! Fees, Fees, Fees!!!!!!

Performance has NOTHING to do with it!!!

That's why I added the qualifier "personally". I know that I'm a lazy investor. I'm ok with that.

Thank you for the responses. I added the Gross Expense Ratio (here ER) and 10Yr Average Annual Total Return (here AAR) to each investment. A few are 3Yr numbers.

Is there any thought to going with ACVAX alone since it tends to be a blended aggressive fund, or should I disperse through several of the investments? The million dollar question is if I spread out over several investments, how many and what %! Everyone has their own opinion of that one, but I'm not a sophisticated investor (trying to learn) so I don't want to be doing something stupid.

[This message has been edited by p-wonk01 (edited 2/3/2014 3:34p).]