Your Most Important Investment Decision Ever
How much should you contribute to your 401(k) and which funds should you pick?
April 9, 2008 — -- The most important investment decision the average American faces has nothing to do with when to buy or when to sell.
Rather, it revolves around the choices we make when we enroll in a company 401(k) or similar retirement savings plan. How much you contribute, and how you invest those contributions, are among the most critical financial decisions we make in the 401(k) era.
The answer to the first question — how much to contribute — is easy: as much as possible. Just be sure to contribute enough to capture the full matching contribution offered by your employer.
The second question — how to invest those contributions — can be much tougher for many workers to answer.
Faced with a dozen or more mutual funds as investment choices, many 401(k) participants can be overwhelmed. Total market index fund or intermediate corporate bond fund? Red Hot Large Cap Growth Fund or Sky High Expenses Small Cap Value? Invest in one fund or a dozen?
If you're unsure how to proceed, let me suggest a four-step process you might want to follow.
First, review each of the investment options offered by your employer's plan. Try to determine into which investment category, or asset class, each fund fits.
In my view, you want four or five major categories represented in your 401(k) portfolio. These are large cap stocks, small cap stocks, international stocks, bonds and cash. Think of them as your portfolio building blocks. Younger workers can do without the cash holding; older workers will want to stash some there for stability purposes.
Other categories you might find offered in your plan include real estate, international emerging markets, international bonds and domestic mid cap stocks. Each of these can be a nice portfolio addition, but if too many funds overwhelm you, start with the five major categories. The others can be added later.
The second step is to figure out the best one or two funds in a given category. Compare not only past performance but also expense ratios. Myself, I would lean toward an index fund if available, but I find in many 401(k) plans that building an all-index portfolio is not possible. At best, you might be offered one index fund representing just a single asset class.
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