Don't know how commmon it is but my wife's 401k is very lacking of investment choices.

They really are pushing people into the target dated funds but would it kill them to offer a few more choices? They do have a total market index fund which is good, a couple small cap options, a couple bond options, a couple international options, and a stable value fund but it would be nice to have large cap growth index, large cap value index, same for small and mid cap, and maye a few sector funds. Would be nice for those of us who want to roll our own investment mix. Seems curious especially since Fidelity is the outfit offering options for her 401K. Luckily bulk of our investments are with Vangaurd brokerage account.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: grumpy1,

That sucks. Target funds would not be my option. It is about the money I am sure.
I have a self directed account which has no limits except what the law will allow.

That is interesting that it's Fidelity. It's not like they have a shortage of funds to offer.

I can live with whatever the company offers. What's more of a pain I found was when the company switched investing companies and they come in with completely different funds.

I think the motivation is so that employees don't spend a lot of time moving money around.

They have taken measures to limit the moving of money around in that if you sell one fund you can't buy any of it again for like 60 days. With small amount of funds that certainly stifles that. Maybe that has become a top priority.

The do offer the Dodge and Cox stock fund DODGX as the "value" option but I would rather see a value index fund option which also have a much lower expense ratio.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
That sucks. Target funds would not be my option. It is about the money I am sure.
I have a self directed account which has no limits except what the law will allow.

So do I. I've been in a restrictive 401K in the past, though.

Do you have a self directed option? Our employer match now goes to target funds. The matching portion used to go to company stock. Now once a quarter I have to move stuff around via the self directed option. Stop fixing shit that ain't broken.

We had the Fidelity Funds but mainly used the Select funds. We used a three week window and at the end of the week, recalculated the leading fund. There were some other rules but you kept your money in the leading fund.

quote:

They have taken measures to limit the moving of money around in that if you sell one fund you can't buy any of it again for like 60 days.

They do that, especially in no-load vehicles, to prevent excessive trading that would drive up internal expenses. Also discourages "front-running", an illegal practice that involves day-trading based on tracking the price movements of equivalent international funds.

Plus, retirement accounts are supposed to be managed with long-term strategies, rather than day-trading or market-timing.

This is the program that some of my coworkers used back in the 80's:

https://fasttrack.net/

You could set up a list of funds to invest and trade. They supplied the fund data of daily prices, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Do you have a self directed option? Our employer match now goes to target funds. The matching portion used to go to company stock. Now once a quarter I have to move stuff around via the self directed option. Stop fixing shit that ain't broken.

Yeah I am using self directed option but not many choices. Right now I have her account invested in the total market index fund and the stable value fund in about a 50/50 mix with new contributions going into the total market index fund. She is only a few years out from retirement.

 
If one changes jobs, or often when one's company is "acquired" by another, you will have a choice of rolling into the new company's 401(k), or rolling over to an independent self-directed IRA. Have your IRA already established to make this process more streamlined. I used Fidelity, and then had a choice of all of their regular funds that were not tied to a 401(k).
 
During the last 5 years of my employment, my employer was acquired 3 times. The first time I was able to roll over 15 years worth of accumulated 401(k) money, and each subsequent time I also chose that option. By the time I retired, I had only a small amount in the 401(k) for the final roll over.

My employer has a 457 account through Nationwide. There are limited options with some fees which I think are way too high.

A S&P 500 plan has a .5% fee. The same account in Fidelity is free.

I need a way to figure out if the pretax benefits outweigh the high fees.

By the time I retired, I'd rolled over 3 separate 401Ks into one IRA and a 4th 401K into a separate IRA.

I'd never leave the money when leaving a company and hope they manage it correctly.

quote:

Originally posted by grumpy1:
Yeah I am using self directed option but not many choices. Right now I have her account invested in the total market index fund and the stable value fund in about a 50/50 mix with new contributions going into the total market index fund. She is only a few years out from retirement.

Self directed options usually allow you to pick whatever funds you want, including ETFs and individual stocks. I moved most of my money to low fee Vanguard ETFs. The self directed option is separate than than limited funds you have access to.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:

quote:

Originally posted by grumpy1:
Yeah I am using self directed option but not many choices. Right now I have her account invested in the total market index fund and the stable value fund in about a 50/50 mix with new contributions going into the total market index fund. She is only a few years out from retirement.

Self directed options usually allow you to pick whatever funds you want, including ETFs and individual stocks. I moved most of my money to low fee Vanguard ETFs. The self directed option is separate than than limited funds you have access to.

Nice, wish we had that option for her 401k, luckily the bulk of our investments are in Vanguard brokerage account.

The choices open to 401K participants is determined by the deal between Fidelity and the employer.

If you don't like the options, you can pester your management/HR/benefits people and let them know you're not happy with the breadth of alternatives.

Let your colleagues know as well - the politely-squeaky wheel may well get greased, in these days of record-low unemployment rates.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I own my own business and have always had a self directed account. Many young employees are clueless about investments and generally do not care.

I have to wonder about "cozy" relationships between companies and the plans they offer. Some of the plans are truly awful in terms of investment choices. The plan offered to University Professors comes to mind.

Don't forget, your 401(k) is part of your overall portfolio, and rather than consider each account its own independent entity, you can treat all account goals as one big account.

If the 401k offers a few good, low expense ratio funds, use those and use other parts of your portfolio like your Roth IRA or brokerage account to acquire stocks, mutual funds or ETFs you desire to hold.

I can relate to the OP. Single digit number of choices in 401k and one is employer's stock. Fortunately, all of the mutual funds are both high quality and extremely low fees & expenses.

I look at my tax advantaged (401k and IRA) as a whole. Then, I use my IRA to balance out my overall portfolio with options not available in 401k (e.g. value oriented ETFs).

quote:

Originally posted by the_sandman_454:
Don't forget, your 401(k) is part of your overall portfolio, and rather than consider each account its own independent entity, you can treat all account goals as one big account.

If the 401k offers a few good, low expense ratio funds, use those and use other parts of your portfolio like your Roth IRA or brokerage account to acquire stocks, mutual funds or ETFs you desire to hold.

That is what I do and it takes a little longer, still I am amazed that they don't offer a few more options especially a decent low cost value index option wth good divident rate like Vanguard VTV ETF or such which could benefit those that don't have other investment options.