Ask HN: Where do you keep your 401k investments?

  • Agree that target date funds invest in bonds too early. I'm 100% in total market index since I'll be in the market for another 25+ years. May shift more towards target date funds as retirement approaches, but haven't thought that far ahead. I subscribe to the Bogle school of thought that low fee total market index funds + time in the market is virtually impossible to beat.

  • I rolled all my 401ks into an IRA on Betterment. They automatically buy Vanguard ETFs and some other stuff. Has some nice features like earnings projections and automatically setting your equity/bond composition (like you can set it to 10% bonds and it will automatically rebalance all your ETFs)

  • Have a financial advisor manage it on my behalf. They know the schedule of risk, but at least a portion of it will be in Vanguard (Fidelity), slowly phasing out stock for bonds as I become a decrepit cripple.

  • Vanguard's target date retirement funds furthest from retirement do not have a 100% stock allocation simply because studies have established that a 90/10 stock/bond portfolio outperforms a 100% stock allocation.

  • I think he's asking more about which funds, but coincidentally I have 401ks at the same 3 places.

    Everything is going towards a target date fund in vanguard with a low expense ratio. This should manage the risk for me. I am also contributing pre tax, since I expect to be in a lower tax bracket when I retire.

    Oh also, I plan to eventually transfer the other two accounts into my current vanguard 401k. This is different from rolling over into an IRA. I think 401k is better since it has more legal protections

  • 50% VTI (US Total Market Index), 25% AVUV (US Small-cap value), 25% AVDV (Developed World Ex-US Small-cap value)

    Important to note I still have, if I'm lucky, 35 years or more until retirement. I'm betting the value factor premium will re-emerge at some point during that time. As I get closer to retirement I'll rotate into more broadly diversified/conservative stocks, but I see little point in holding bond funds in a portfolio for my situation.

    That's not to say I won't own bonds outright when it makes sense. A good chunk of my security fund is in T-Bills and I-Bonds. But I can say from having lived through market downturns that I don't panic-sell, so the "portfolio stability" argument for bonds is largely wasted on me. In retirement I plan to keep a multi-year cushion in a Federal Asset Money Market account (to avoid state/local taxes) and the rest 100% stocks to maximize total long-term returns.

    I'm a recipient of modest generational inheritance myself, my grandparents were dirt poor, my parents made it to upper middle class. It's part of my job to keep the generational snowball rolling for my kids and (hopefully) future grandkids. Particularly if wealth inequality isn't going to get any better.

  • Fidelity can do almost everything, and I consolidate there whenever I can. (And an employer's non-Fidelity/non-Vanguard 401k service is actually a reason to look forward to leaving the company, so that I can roll over my 401k treasure to Fidelity.)

    The only thing Fidelity couldn't do was way back when I wanted a Solo 401(k) that permitted loans, but they didn't have a prototype plan for that, so I would've needed to find&pay someone else draw up the plan document, to hand to Fidelity.

    Fidelity even has HSAs now, and very convenient to buy&sell within them, without the headaches and ridiculous investment options like I had with two other places.

    They have most any kind of fund I was aware of. But lately I just stick with the simple low-expense-ratio total-market iShares ETFs, like ITOT/IVV, AGG, IXUS, which have only a negligible fee upon selling. (IIRC, you can also get the Vanguard funds at Fidelity, but my backtesting of ITOT, etc., against Vanguard counterparts looked like they were equivalent.)

    Cash in accounts can be moved automatically to/from funds like FDRXX (4.99% yield) or SPAXX (4.96%), and my bank-like Cash Manager account uses an FDIC deposit sweep (2.72%).

  • My 401K as of this moment:

    Traditional 401K: 100% GME

    Roth 401K: 100% IBIT/FBTC (bitcoin ETFs)

    This is not investment advice, but my general rule is to use 401Ks and IRAs for, high-risk, high-gain, short-term, tax-inefficient trades.

    My traditional 401K is mostly unvested company match. If GME crashes and I lose all of it, bleh, I change jobs earlier, no big deal. If GME skyrockets, I sell, then stay at my current company and vest that shit.

    As for the roth 401K, I believe there is a high chance in BTC going up drastically more in the next 1 year, in which case I'll sell and the government can't lay their rotten hands on a penny of it. If BTC crashes due to some short term economic crisis, I'll just hold until it goes back up some time in the next 25 years, which I believe is nearly certain.

    My normal brokerage account is where I do long-term index funds and long-term investments, because they are already taxed much less at long-term rates, and I can sell them at a future time when they would be taxed even less (e.g. hypothetical future gap year with intentionally zero income, hypothetical future time I'm not living in California).

  • Vanguard, but instead of using target date funds I choose the index fund allocation manually. The target date funds basically just hold 4 index funds. If you are in a tax advantaged account, it's pretty trivial to just update those allocations once a year to pay lower fees.

  • I have a traditional IRA account at one of the major brokerages, and I roll-over each employer 401k to that account when I'm done with that employer. Then I just invest it in VOO and a couple similar ETFs. Plenty of flexibility and no charges for the purchases.

  • Vanguard target retirement 2060 for 401k / IRA, and 2040 for my brokerage. I try to keep it simple.

    Each time I leave a job I roll into Vanguard so I'm not paying more fees each year for no reason.

    If you don't want 10% bonds, then use VTSAX maybe.

  • Assuming these are for jobs I’ve left, I’m using Fidelity rollover IRAs, with 100% of the funds in FZROX. It has performed amazingly over the years. I would describe it as the lazy man’s yolo

  • Are you old enough to have experienced a bear market? Investing 100% in stocks can suffer big drawdowns when there is an extended bear market say down 40% over several years. I would diversify with small portions (5-10% each) in gold, crypto, bonds and cash. If you are dollar cost averaging into stocks it's important to keep investing when stocks are going down. Also assume you own your own home - if not that should be your first priority.

  • I might sound like a bad idea to hold bonds so far from retirement but it can sometimes work out better than solely index funds.

    If the market crashes you'll be heavy on bonds and able to buy the dip when you rebalance.

    Check this out: https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Lar...

  • was in similar position -- rolled all previous employers into vanguard IRA, self directed; VTI, NVDA, JPM, COST, MRK...

    have not regretted decision to take direct control

  • I am a VTSAX and chill-er. Before doing the math, I spent years with an EFE managed account that would’ve eaten $100,000s in fees over the life of the account, which seems like overkill to shuffle around a few index funds in a 401k. I should’ve become an investment banker.

  • My 401k is at Fidelity and split 80% into SP500 and 20% into the target retirement fund for my age. It was the other way around and like the OP I soon realized how much I was losing. I'll probably ease it back into the target fund as I get closer to retirement.

  • Vanguard. Fidelity has some nice low-cost index funds in the style of Vanguard, as well.

  • I have my 401k managed through Vanguard currently. Previously Principal with a former employer. I have other savings and investment in other providers, managed by a financial advisor.

  • Bogleheads is leaking ...

    Just get an asset allocation of index funds you're happy with and roll with it. The "three fund portfolio" is hard to beat for simplicity.

  • Have everything in Schwab.

    Portfolio is a modified ben felix portfolio with a small allocation to qmom and individual stocks. No bonds

  • Ask yourself whether you want to optimize the P10, P50, or P90 outcome.

  • VT and chill. Add BND / BNDW if you wish.

  • Vanguard. It's been doing amazingly

  • Tqqq

  • 100% SCHD.

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  • Vanguard because it supports passkeys.

    If you want that much risk, day trading might be an option