Someone a lot smarter in this area told me you can't beat the market, I took his advice about 3 years ago and have aligned as closely as possible with the S&P. No stocks, just a single fund (FBGRX) in both 401s and the Roth. We were up just over 33% last year, that's after 36% in 2017. I am trying to learn when to exit in to bonds or money market, and when to go back in, a 2008 redux would be painful at this stage and push back retirement several years.
Right now my go for exit is a 10% drop in the 90 day trailing return. I'm 39 and on track to be done at 55, assuming 8% YoY. We max out the Roth and contributions to the 401s are set to 14% pre-tax for 2020. One mistake I made was to keep the contribution percentage flat at the employer match, we changed this about 8 years ago going to 1% increase each year, for 2020 and moving forward, I bumped it to 2%. This is now helping to offset our tax exposure as earnings grow.
Right now my go for exit is a 10% drop in the 90 day trailing return. I'm 39 and on track to be done at 55, assuming 8% YoY. We max out the Roth and contributions to the 401s are set to 14% pre-tax for 2020. One mistake I made was to keep the contribution percentage flat at the employer match, we changed this about 8 years ago going to 1% increase each year, for 2020 and moving forward, I bumped it to 2%. This is now helping to offset our tax exposure as earnings grow.
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