Guys, Im opening a 401k plan (finally) and I plan to use our in-house (hartford life) and also open a roth IRA with firm outside my company. Any suggestions as to the type of company I need to be looking for (roth ira)? appreciate it !
My Roth IRA is with Charles Schwab. Office is conveniently located in the Galleria. They give great advice. It's done well over the past 5 years.
here are my choices for in-house 1) goldman sachs Mid value/a 2) Oppenheimer Main street opportunity/A 3)Legg Mason US Small Value/A 4)Oppenheimer Main street small cap/A 5 Saloman Bros small cap growth/A 6 american Funds: Europacific 7 PIMCO Real Return/A 8 Pioneer HIgh Yield 9 Oppenheimer internationl bond/A i have no idea wdf these mean...help?!
From a financial novice, I would choose the 4 or 5 mutual funds (that's what those weird names are) with the lowest cost. If any of them have a cost of less than 1%, I'd pick them. Once you open the account, leave it alone. Don't panic if it doesn't do well for a few months. The only thing that matters is how much you put in and how much you take out. Everything that happens in between is meaningless. I wouldn't touch it unless you financial advisor suggests it.
Saints be praised, fellow freedom figh.... crap, I thought you were talking about this kind of IRA You didn't see anything.
Fidelity like Schwabb has offices in Houston, which may be convenient for you. If a local office is not that valuable for you, you have many options like AmeriTrade and Vanguard. FWIW I have my IRAs at Vanguard and Fidelity. I am pleased with both. I also have my regular brokerage account with Fidelity (and I visit their office every year or so). The 'A' in the title of those funds means these fund are LOADED with an upfront sales charge. Your plan documentation should tell you what the load is (and if it is perchance waived). There are two glaringly missing fund from your list of options: SP500/Total Market index fund and target retirement date funds. I can not recommend target date funds enough for 401ks as well as IRAs.
This would be my recommendation. With this type of fund, you get asset allocation and rebalancing done for you. There is no need to own 4-7 different types of funds and to yearly rebalance them.
While I agree that people should invest in more than one mutual fund, I think your logic about it is a little off. The purpose of a mutual fund is all about not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Mutual funds are simply baskets of different stocks. They also allow people who can't buy stocks in round lots to be able to diversify themselves better.
My dad is a certified financial planner, and he set me up with a Roth IRA through Transamerica IDEX. http://www.idexfunds.com/site3/reti...l;jsessionid=24IBMHQ41YICTIT1MT3CCWNCPNSPWHKS So far it's been doing pretty well. I had him look over the funds they offer with our 401k here at work, and he told me where to put my money, and I made like 26% last year.
Yes I got the A shares. And no, the 5.5% goes to Transamerica. He got some kind of commission in the deal, but that's the nature of the business.
