I recently highlighted some interesting data on US worker 401K allocations trending current portfolio makeups to those that existed 10 years ago. The trends were encouraging, yet they left room for improvement (in my humble opinion). I thought I'd share my current makeup and poll readers on what their makeup is like and their suggestions.


My current Allocation based on a broad categorization:

Domestic Equities: 43%
Foreign Equities: 40%
Bonds: 10%
Short Term: 5%
Other: 2%

I have anywhere from 20-30 years until retirement, depending where life brings me and how much longer my company can tolerate me. Therefore, there's a very heavy bias toward more aggressive stock holdings. I've had a very high international exposure for years now, which was great last year, when the overall 401K was up 31%, but has been painful this year, as both US and international indices have fallen hard. My YTD return is currently -12%, which could be worse given that the S&P500 is down over 13% on the year, but it isn't much to write home about.

Of the breakdown, my company stock comprises 4% of the domestic equities component and a small portion in a Target Date fund appears to be included in the Bond and Short Term components (I think the system allocated a portion of some funds to multiple categories since my holdings don't match the pie chart).

So, that's my 401K in a nutshell.

• What's yours look like?

  Does your plan force you to buy company stock?

  Is your plan unreasonably restrictive or lacking offerings?

  Are there unique aspects to your plan like alternative investments or discounts available?

For a snapshot of what the average US worker is holding today vs. 10 years ago, check out this article.