
- Vanguard Target Retirement 2050
- Vanguard Target Retirement 2045
- Vanguard Target Retirement 2040
- Vanguard Target Retirement 2035
- Vanguard Target Retirement 2030
- Vanguard Target Retirement 2025
While it simplifies the choice of allocating your 401k investments, they may not be what’s best for you. Here is an analogy: Let’s say you are not feeling well and go to the doctor. He asks how old you are. You tell him your age and he says, “Ok, I’m going to give you this medicine because that’s what I give to all of the people that age.”
Everyone is different and age is just one of the things that should go into what determines your investment allocations. You also have to consider:
- Your job
- Your spouse’s job
- If you have kids & perhaps their age(s)
- How much risk with your investments you are emotionally comfortable with
- How risk with your investments you may need to take to hit your goals
- Any inheritance you may receive
- Other assets you have saved up
- Your projected expenses in retirement
Whenever I put together a portfolio allocation for someone I like to see how it would have fared during the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis. History doesn’t mean it’s going to repeat itself, but it’s interesting to look at. Studies show that many of the 2010 target-date funds were found to be too aggressive when the markets crashed in 2008.