Retirement Planning – 401k Allocations with T. Rowe Price

Posted September 7, 2006 by Chuck Posted in: Personal Finance

My employer runs their 401k plan through T. Rowe Price this is where the majority of my retirement funds are held. Like most retirement plans ours offers a limited selection of funds, and I decided to write a breakdown of the investment choices and my personal allocations.

Here is a list of the funds available my plan:

Fund Name Ticker Type Expense 5yr return
Amer Funds Europacific Growth AEPGX Foreign Large Blend 0.76% 13.47%
Equity Income Fund PRFDX Large Value 0.71% 7.48%
Equity Index Trust (Equity Index 500)** PREIX Large Blend 0.35% 4.81%
Mid-Cap Growth Fund RPMGX Mid-Cap Growth 0.80% 9.97%
Personal Strategy Balanced TRPBX Moderate Allocation 0.90% 8.00%
Personal Strategy Growth Fund TRSGX Large Blend 0.92% 8.58%
Personal Strategy Income Fund PRSIX Conservative Allocation 0.80% 7.07%
PIMCO Total Return Admin PTRAX Intermediate-Term Bond 0.68% 4.24%
Small-Cap Stock Fund OTCFX Small Blend 0.92% 10.67%
TRP Stable Value Fund Sch E*** Money Marketesque
Wells Fargo Lg Co Growth NVLAX Large Growth 1.20% 0.39%

** Not the actual fund in my plan, but closely resembles it. Fund in plan doesn’t have a ticker.
*** Don’t have much info on this and don’t really care to look it up since I’m not interested in a money market fund.

So, right away I’m throwing out Wells Fargo Lg Co Growth because the expense ratio, returns, and morning star rating all suck. Also TRP Stable Value Fund Sch E because I am 30 years from retirement and have no desire to have a money market fund in my portfolio. Also Personal Strategy Income Fund because again I’m too far from retirement for that, and PIMCO Total Return Admin because I have enough bond exposure in my ROTH and taxable accounts.

My plan is to keep is simple, with the majority of my funds going in the plan that tracks the S&P 500 – Equity Index Trust (Equity Index 500). The fund hasn’t performed well in the 5 year timeframe, but the 3 year looks much better and from all I’ve read on asset allocation this is the right choice. I also want international exposure so I have a fair chunk of the Amer Funds Europacific Growth fund (its the only international fund so not much of a decision there). These 2 funds make up about 85% of my portfolio.

To fill in the rest I am a big fan of value funds, so I picked the Equity Income Fund which is a large cap value fund. My sentimental choice was the Mid-Cap Growth Fund because back when I first started at the company I had no idea what I was picking and this made up about 60% of my portfolio – and luckily it did very well in that timeframe.

So here is my final asset allocation in my plan:

Equity Index Trust (Equity Index 500) – 60%
Amer Funds Europacific Growth – 25%
Equity Income Fund – 10%
Mid-Cap Growth Fund – 5%

Hopefully it will serve me well.

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