Personal Finance

3856 readers

3 users here now

Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!

Note: This community is not region centric, so if you are posting anything specific to a certain region, kindly specify that in the title (something like [USA], [EU], [AUS] etc.)

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Fidelity 401k options (self.personalfinance)

submitted 4 months ago by root to c/[email protected]

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

My employer recently switched to Fidelity and for now I've chosen the LIFEPATH IDX 2050 A option. It looks like this one provides quarterly dividends, but the yield is 0.0%(?)

I'm looking for some fairly risk adverse options or blends that provide dividends that will be reinvested. Anyone have any recommendations?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

OP is risk-averse, and FZROX will buck like bronco. If OP can automate it and conveniently "forget" the password, then yeah, go for it. But if OP things they're likely to panic sell, FZROX isn't the best option, they'll need some bonds to calm that horse down a bit.

Lifepath Idx 2050 should do that, but it'll take a few years for the bond portion to increase (seems to currently be 8?). I'd need to know more about what "risk averse" means, but Lifepath idx 2040 is currently ~25% fixed income, so the 2050 should get more conservative pretty quickly.

[–] root 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I guess I shouldn't have said risk adverse, just diversified. I'm not worried about panic selling (I just check in once in a while, I like to set it and forget it for long term accounts like this), but I do want something that's not just a single stock or industry.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ok, well your 401k is very unlikely to offer single stocks or single industry, most of the funds it'll offer will be diversified.

If you care more about total returns, I recommend just getting either a Total Stock Market fund (if it's offered) or an S&P 500 fund, since pretty much every 401k will have access to one of those. The S&P 500 is something like 85% of the US stock market, so it's plenty diversified.

I personally invest in a mix of international total stock market and US total stock market funds in a 70/30 mix (global market cap is about 60/40, so I'm heavier on US stocks), and my 401k offers really low-cost funds for those. However, that's not true everywhere, so you may need to be careful about fees (though Fidelity 401ks usually have low-cost funds).

If you provide a list of your options, I can make some specific recommendations.

[–] root 2 points 4 months ago

Thank you for the feedback! I played the options in another comment, and it seems your advice is shared by others!