What is the best 401(k) allotment in your 30's?

I know contributing to a variety of different funds is good and I am willing to a little bit higher risk because I am just starting. I would like opinions where to allot the money regarding small or large caps, international, money market, etc. Also, if you know of a good educational website that offers examples, that would be great!

Do you want to actively manage your money (i.e., keep track of your asset allocation, etc) or would you prefere to put the money away and only check on it every once in a while?

If you want to actively manage your money, I'd recommend fidelity or vanguards websites for some planning tools.

If you would rather let your money go on autopilot, I'd consider what is called a life-cycle fund. You pick what year your target retirment date is, and the fun automatically adjusts to the asset allocation that is appropriate for you. What this means is that as you age, your investments get a little more conservative because you have a shorter time frame until you retire. By doing this, you may give up a little bet of potential investment return, but you'll spend very little time managing your investments.

Good luck!

Invest in an asset allocation fund that diverses for you, if none are available, see a financial planner and they will be able to spread your risks across all available funds.

nothing to money market - too young. 5% gold due to inflation risk. 25% S&p Index or similiar large cap. 20% Asia/Pacific 20% Natural resources 15% Small/Mid Cap US 15% Reits as good total return. Mutual funds & etfs can easily handle all of this. IAU EWA EAF PEO SNH among the etfs, close-end invest cos & Reits to buy. feel free to e-mail via answers further qs.

Hi, i suggest a great site with plenty of Issues related to your Investing and everything around it. it also provide clear and accurate answer to many common questions.

http://investing.sitesled.com/

I am sure that you can get your answers in this website.

Good Luck and Best Wishes!

check out fidelity.com

their website has all sorts of tools for planning and investing.

if your employer isnt matching id go with a mutual fund that is set up to fairly aggressive to start and automatically becomes more conservative as you get closer to retirement. you dont have to worry and deal with moving assets as it matures.

http://personal.fidelity.com/products/fu...

John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard Funds, said if you are 36 years old, you should have 36% of your money invested in bonds. The rest should be in stocks.

If you want to invest in the stock market, I think the first thing to do is see what the best traders are buying and selling. This is the idea behind the site http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money. Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors. You can also read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas.

Here are this month's best traders:

http://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standin...

Good luck!