Portfolio Review

[eazy]

Emergency funds: Not at this time, I have $1,000 in a savings. But, I do have $32,100 worth of credit with my two credit cards.
Debt: $26,030 auto loan at 1.49%
Tax Filing Status: Single
Tax Rate: Federal 25%
State of Residence: TX
Age: 32
Desired Asset allocation: 85% stocks / 15% bonds
Desired International allocation: xx% of stocks I am unsure and do not know what rate would be correct for me. Any input or suggestions would be great.

Current portfolio %

Roth IRA 75.25% Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund - VFIFX - ER 0.19%

Governmental 457B All funds listed within this plan are trust funds - they don't have a ticker per say. The funds ticker price does not match the trust fund price which is what my account uses. Hope this makes sense

6.07% VT Vantagepoint Cor Bnd Idx - Vantagepoint Core Bond Index I - Total expenses 0.97%
14.85% VT Vantagepoint Brd Mkt Idx - Vantagepoint Broad Market Index I - Total expnese 0.97
3.83% VT Vantagepnt Ovrseas Eq Idx - Vantagepoint Overseas Equity Index I - Total expense 1.10%

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

457B Options:

STABLE VALUE/CASH MANAGEMENT
~VantageTrust PLUS Fund - Total expenses (estimated) 1.36%
~VantageTrust Cash Management Dreyfus Cash Management Participant Cl 60 - Total expenses (estimated) 1.31%
~VT BoA MMDA (1 Year CD)
~VT BoA MMDA (3 Year CD)
~VT BoA MMDA (5 Year CD)

Bond
~VT PIMCO Total Return - PIMCO Total Return Administrative - Total expenses (estimated) 1.41%
~VT Vantagepoint Infl Prot Sec - Vantagepoint Inflation Prot Securities - Total expenses (estimated) 1.20%
~VT PIMCO High Yield - PIMCO High Yield Administrat - Total expenses (estimated) 1.50

GUARANTEED LIFETIME INCOME
~VT Retirement IncomeAdvantage - Total expenses (estimated) 2.13%

U.S. STOCK
~VT Vantagepoint Equity Income - Vantagepoint Equity Income - Total expenses (estimated) 1.38%
~VT Allianz NFJ Div Value - Allianz NFJ Dividend Value Admin - Total expenses (estimated) 1.66%
~VT Eaton Vance Large-Cap Value - Eaton Vance Large-Cap Value A - Total expenses (estimated) 1.68%
~VT Vantagepoint 500 Stk Idx - Vantagepoint 500 Stock Index I - Total expenses (estimated) 0.98%
~VT Vantagepoint Brd Mkt Idx - Vantagepoint Broad Market Index I - Total expenses (estimated) 0.97%
~VT Vantagepoint Grwth & Income - Vantagepoint Growth & Income - Total expenses (estimated) 1.34%
~VT Oppenheimer Main Street -Oppenheimer Main Street Y - Total expenses (estimated) 1.27%
~VT Vantagepoint Growth - Vantagepoint Growth 20 - Total expenses (estimated) 1.35%
~VT Fidelity Contrafund® - Fidelity Contrafund® 33 - Total expenses (estimated) 1.51%
~VT Calvert Equity Portfolio - Calvert Equity Portfolio A - Total expenses (estimated) 1.92%
~VT T Rowe Price® Growth Stock - T Rowe Price® Growth Stock Advisor - Total expenses (estimated) 1.63%
~VT Vantagepoint Select Value - Vantagepoint Select Value - Total expenses (estimated) 1.55%
~VT Columbia Mid Cap Value - Columbia Mid Cap Value Z - Total expenses (estimated) 1.64%
~VT Vantagepoint Md/Sm Co Idx -Vantagepoint Mid/Small Company Index I - Total expenses (estimated) 0.99%
~VT Vantagepoint Aggressive Ops -Vantagepoint Aggressive Opportunities - Total expenses (estimated) 1.39%
~VT Royce Premier - Royce Premier Service YN - Total expenses (estimated) 2.04%
~VT Harbor Mid Cap Growth -Harbor Mid Cap Growth Administrative - Total expenses (estimated) 1.81%
~VT Rainier Small/Mid Cap Eqty -Rainer Small/Mid Cap Equity Original - Total expenses (estimated) 1.96%
~VT Vantagepoint Discovery -Vantagepoint Discovery - Total expenses (estimated) 1.51%
~VT T Rowe Price® Sm-Cap Value -T Rowe Price® Small-Cap Value Advisor - Total expenses (estimated) 1.93%
~VT Royce Value Plus -Royce Value Plus Service - Total expenses (estimated) 2.15%

INTERNATIONAL/GLOBAL STOCK
~VT Vantagepoint International -Vantagepoint International - Total expenses (estimated) 1.53%
~VT Vantagepnt Ovrseas Eq Idx - Vantagepoint Overseas Equity Index I - Total expenses (estimated) 1.10%
~VT Fidelity Diversified Intl -Fidelity Diversified International - Total expenses (estimated) 1.60%
~VT Harbor International - Harbor International Administrative - Total expenses (estimated) 1.73%

SPECIALTY
~VT Nuveen Real Estate Secs -Nuveen Real Estate Securities I - Total expenses (estimated) 1.74%

My questions:

1. Again, any help or suggestions to my first question about the international allocation for me would be appreciated.

2. As you can see, my 457B funds have high expenses. These are indexes, so this is as low as I can get. Knowing this and say I have extra money to invest, should I continue to put the extra money into this higher expense account or open a taxable account where I can get much lower fees?

3. Any other insights, suggestions or comments?

Thanks in advance for your time in helping!!

[Johm221122]

85% stocks risky
Put extra money towards emergency fund
International is usually recommended between 20-50% of equity
I would use one for your cash management funds in 457 and a little as possible total stock market
Use total stock index and total international index in Ira

John

[eazy]

85% stocks risky
Put extra money towards emergency fund
International is usually recommended between 20-50% of equity
I would use one for your cash management funds in 457 and a little as possible total stock market
Use total stock index and total international index in Ira
You may want to use index fund in taxable for emergency fund(after maybe 10k cash) using this
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Placing_ ... ed_Account
John

Johm221122,
Sorry for the delay, but thanks for the response. Sorry, but I do not understand what you are trying to say here

I would use one for your cash management funds in 457 and a little as possible total stock market

Use total stock index and total international index in Ira

Can you give me a bit more explanation... Maybe dummy it down for me

[eazy]

Did I provide all the info needed to help in evaluating my portfolio? Any other help/input from others would be greatly appreciated.

[pingo]

Based on the info you posted of the funds you are invested in, we have a pretty good idea of what the situation is with the index funds expense-wise. However, we really do need to also see the expense ratios for the remaining funds in the plan. Please edit the first post in this thread to include the expense ratios and other info requested below.

BTW does your employer 457 plan offer matching contributions? Are you receiving them? What is the match and how much does it come to in dollars?

Other crucial information would be your contribution amounts, for example:
Annual Contributions
$x,xxx IRA <--Have you already contributes for 2012? Also, limit increases to $5,500/yr for 2013.
$xx,xxx 457 <--$17,500 limit begins 2013. Include any employer match.
$x,xxx Taxable Account (only include if for retirement)

And believe it or not, it would be very helpful to give us an idea of the size of your portfolio, or at the very least an indication of whether it is 4, 5 or 6 figures or more. (Among other things, this helps us know whether certain fund minimums can be met, which in turn may affect fund location/choices.)

[Johm221122]

85% stocks risky
Put extra money towards emergency fund
International is usually recommended between 20-50% of equity
I would use one for your cash management funds in 457 and a little as possible total stock market
Use total stock index and total international index in Ira

John

Johm221122,
Sorry for the delay, but thanks for the response. Sorry, but I do not understand what you are trying to say here

I would use one for your cash management funds in 457 and a little as possible total stock market

Use total stock index and total international index in Ira

Can you give me a bit more explanation... Maybe dummy it down for me

You have more assets in Ira and you 457 has high exspence ratio on index funds,so with wide range of fixed income options ,I would consider using Ira for stock indexes and use fixed income in 457.As PINGO mentioned we need more information
John

[FNK]

Credit cards are not emergency funds. Build that up first.

[Pennstateclj1]

Emergency funds: Not at this time, I have $1,000 in a savings. But, I do have $32,100 worth of credit with my two credit cards.

At 15% interest give or take? That doesn't seem like an e-fund, that's a last resort.

Credit cards are not emergency funds. Build that up first.Credit cards are not emergency funds. Build that up first.

First priority after getting your company match. You can consider your ROTH IRA a tier of your emergency fund insofar as you can take out your contributions at any time without penalty. But the Vanguard Retirement 2050 is going to be very volatile and thus your account could drop in value when you actually need it, so don't count on that for now. Or if you do, move it to something less volatile while you grow your emergency fund and 457 up.

As for international stock holdings, most believe anywhere between 20-40% of your stock holdings could be international stocks. Depends how much of a U.S. bias you want.

[eazy]

Pingo thanks for the response! I hope the following updates help.

Based on the info you posted of the funds you are invested in, we have a pretty good idea of what the situation is with the index funds expense-wise. However, we really do need to also see the expense ratios for the remaining funds in the plan. Please edit the first post in this thread to include the expense ratios and other info requested below. ERs have been updated for each fund.

BTW does your employer 457 plan offer matching contributions? Are you receiving them? What is the match and how much does it come to in dollars? The employer does not match for the 457

Other crucial information would be your contribution amounts, for example:
Annual Contributions 7% of my annual salary goes to my pension (city matches 2:1). Max out Roth each year. At this time, $5,200 a year to the 457
$x,xxx IRA <--Have you already contributes for 2012? ] Also, limit increases to $5,500/yr for 2013. Roth will be maxed out next month.
$xx,xxx 457 <--$17,500 limit begins 2013. Include any employer match.
$x,xxx Taxable Account (only include if for retirement) No taxable account at this time.

And believe it or not, it would be very helpful to give us an idea of the size of your portfolio, or at the very least an indication of whether it is 4, 5 or 6 figures or more. (Among other things, this helps us know whether certain fund minimums can be met, which in turn may affect fund location/choices.) 4 figure at this time

[eazy]

Pennstateclj1 and FNK your input is appreciated!

Emergency funds: Not at this time, I have $1,000 in a savings. But, I do have $32,100 worth of credit with my two credit cards.

At 15% interest give or take? That doesn't seem like an e-fund, that's a last resort. I agree, and this is something I will be working on in 2013.

Credit cards are not emergency funds. Build that up first.Credit cards are not emergency funds. Build that up first.

First priority after getting your company match. You can consider your ROTH IRA a tier of your emergency fund insofar as you can take out your contributions at any time without penalty. But the Vanguard Retirement 2050 is going to be very volatile and thus your account could drop in value when you actually need it, so don't count on that for now. Or if you do, move it to something less volatile while you grow your emergency fund and 457 up.

As for international stock holdings, most believe anywhere between 20-40% of your stock holdings could be international stocks. Depends how much of a U.S. bias you want. Please correct me if my wrong. Once my 457 is established longer, my overall international allocations should be around 25%. My Vanguard target fund has about 10% and my 457 international is set at 15%.

[Pennstateclj1]

Math's never been my forte, so bear with me, but think of it like this...

Say your account is worth $10k, you want an overall allocation (which is the most important) of 85/15 stocks/bonds.
So you have $8500 in stocks and $1500 in bonds.

Now, of your $8500 in stocks, you want a 25% international allocation so about $2125 would be international and $6375 would be U.S. The desired percentage of international applies only to the stock portion of the portfolio, not the overall portfolio. So in your example of 10%+15% allocations within your IRA and 457 that would actually give you a ~29% international allocation because you forgot to remove the bond portion first. That's not far off your target, and it seems reasonable. If you wanted closer to 25% international stocks you could do the 10% to the IRA as it is in the fund, and then only 12% within your 457, the other 3% would go to US stock.

Hopefully I explained that well enough.


I'll also add that what you put the money in matters much less at this point than the actual savings rate. The reason being even if you get a 100% return (highly improbable) the return will still be pretty insignificant. You should strive to save at least 20% of your income. The advantage of the 457 is you can put away a lot more money than you can in the IRA. The disadvantage of your particular 457 is that the expenses are fairly high (however some are 2% in other plans.)

[pingo]

Okay. Forgive me for asking you to be more specific after saying it was okay to tell us the "figure" size of your portfolio, but your account balances are quite small, as I suspected. I think it may extremely beneficial to give us your total portfolio amount in dollars, because fund minimums are likely to be an issue and we need to help you get the most out of your accounts and savings.

Below, I cover a couple scenarios where it would be good to know how much is in the accounts so as not to put you at too much risk of not having the amounts you need for a posssible emergency.

[pingo]

Just some comments:

85% stocks risky

John is right. But I'll add for perspective that that eazy is barely starting out, expects a pension, and will likely be housing some emergency money within the Roth, so at least for the time being, it won't look like (s)he's 85/15.

I would use one for your cash management funds in 457 and a little as possible total stock market
Use total stock index and total international index in Ira

Interesting. I assumed that the BofA CD's came with similarly high expenses (or perhaps, a below-average yield to amounts to a hidden expense) and which would make unworthy. Eazy, would you please clarify? Are the 457 CD's available without an ER? How does the yield measure up?

You may want to use index fund in taxable for emergency fund(after maybe 10k cash) using this
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Placing_ ... ed_Account
John

Johm221122,
Sorry for the delay, but thanks for the response. Sorry, but I do not understand what you are trying to say here

I would use one for your cash management funds in 457 and a little as possible total stock market

Use total stock index and total international index in Ira

Can you give me a bit more explanation... Maybe dummy it down for me

I think one the one hand, John knows that bonds are expected to have low returns and that currently CDs can be a viable alternative to a bond fund.

I would also say that if you're going to be housing some emergency funds in your Roth (until you're able to build up a reasonable amount in regular savings), you could also allocate some of it to a CD in your 457 (assuming the CDs are not cost/yield prohibitive) and keep putting your Roth money into equities.

If you absolutely have to pull funds for an emergency it wouldn't matter if you had to sell Roth equities at a gain or loss because you'd liquidate cash in the 457 to purchase those same stocks at the same prices to replace the ones you pulled out of the Roth. There would have a zero-sum effect on your actual retirement savings. Money is fungible, so it would be the functional equivalent withdrawing the cash from the 457, or of holding cash in the Roth and just pulling it out directly, but the benefit comes from having significantly lower portfolio costs and the CDs offer better (and safer) returns than cash would at Vanguard in the Roth.

[pingo]

You have more assets in Ira and you 457 has high exspence ratio on index funds,so with wide range of fixed income options ,I would consider using Ira for stock indexes and use fixed income in 457.

Exactly. With low costing CDs as your "bonds", eazy can take advantage of the Vanguard account to access better/low cost index funds.

If the CDs do come at a high cost (effectively eliminating the yield benefit), or if those yields are not competitive with retail CDs (which is a hidden cost per se), then the answer would be to put all your 457 money in the Vantagepoint Broad Market Index (ER 0.97) because it has the lowest ER and greatest efficiency (less turnover, less hidden transactions costs to the fund, less drag on returns) along with higher expected returns than bonds or CDs. You would then house your Int'l fund, bonds, and any other necessary amount of U.S. equities in the Roth where you have the better selection.

[pingo]

Emergency funds: Not at this time, I have $1,000 in a savings. But, I do have $32,100 worth of credit with my two credit cards.

How long can you live off of $1,000 in savings?

It may be more helpful to think in terms of how many months you could pay your bills/living expenses if you lost your job. 3-6 months is reasonable. Depending on your industry or seniority (given current economic challenges), 6 months to 1 year might make more sense for some. There are those with low job stability that keep as much as 2 years in their emergency savings.

I agree that the credit card can be considered part of a tiered system of resources for emergency situations, but you still must build up your emergency fund.

Tax Filing Status: Single
Tax Rate: Federal 25%

A 25% federal tax bracket makes me wonder if a Traditional IRA is preferible. A 0% state tax makes the Roth a little more attractive than usual, but expecting a pension which will make it more difficult to convert Traditional assets into Roth assets during retirement within an attractive tax bracket. However, I expect we're going to fuse the purpose of the Roth with the need for emergency savings (which must necessarily be after-tax), so I think we may be able to ignore the issue for a while.

[pingo]

Please correct me if my wrong...My Vanguard target fund has about 10% and my 457 international is set at 15%.

With pleasure!

Your 457 Int'l Equities represent 21% of all equities in the 457 (4% / 19% equities combined = 21% of equities).
Your Roth Int'l Equities represent 30% of all equities in the Roth (27% / 90% equities combined = 30% of equities).

Combined, your current International equities represent 28% of all equities (24% of the entire portfolio).

Don't feel bad. It'll all make sense when we're through. Just focus on answering the bazillion questions that have been made since your last post. After that I think we'll be ready to rock 'n' roll.

[eazy]

Math's never been my forte, so bear with me, but think of it like this...

Say your account is worth $10k, you want an overall allocation (which is the most important) of 85/15 stocks/bonds.
So you have $8500 in stocks and $1500 in bonds.

Now, of your $8500 in stocks, you want a 25% international allocation so about $2125 would be international and $6375 would be U.S. The desired percentage of international applies only to the stock portion of the portfolio, not the overall portfolio. So in your example of 10%+15% allocations within your IRA and 457 that would actually give you a ~29% international allocation because you forgot to remove the bond portion first. That's not far off your target, and it seems reasonable. If you wanted closer to 25% international stocks you could do the 10% to the IRA as it is in the fund, and then only 12% within your 457, the other 3% would go to US stock.

Hopefully I explained that well enough.


I'll also add that what you put the money in matters much less at this point than the actual savings rate. The reason being even if you get a 100% return (highly improbable) the return will still be pretty insignificant. You should strive to save at least 20% of your income. The advantage of the 457 is you can put away a lot more money than you can in the IRA. The disadvantage of your particular 457 is that the expenses are fairly high (however some are 2% in other plans.)

This makes perfect sense, thanks for your time in the detailed explanation.

[eazy]

Pingo, I will send you a PM sometime today. Thanks!

[eazy]

Also, here is some information on the CDs offered...

Description

One-, three-, and five-year CD Accounts are issued by Bank of America, N.A. (“Bank”), a member of FDIC, and are available as VantageTrust investment options. CD Account deposits of up to $250,000 are insured by the FDIC, subject to certain limitations. Interest is credited to CD Account balances daily and compounded monthly. Withdrawals prior to the stated maturity date will reduce the annual percentage yield and are generally subject to an early withdrawal penalty (Please see “Withdrawals” below).

At maturity, interest will cease to accrue, and the entire principal amount and all accrued interest will be invested in an investment option selected by your Plan sponsor. If the investment option is the PLUS Fund (or other stable value fund), you should note that direct transfers from the PLUS Fund to CD Accounts and certain other investment options, are prohibited.

Amounts to be invested in CD Accounts are initially held in the Bank’s Money Market Deposit Account (“MMDA”), until the open investment window closes, typically on the second to last business day of the month. Assets held in the MMDA will earn the Bank’s MMDA rate and cannot be withdrawn until after the assets have been invested in the CD Account. At that time early withdrawal penalties could apply. Effective October 28, 2011, the annual administrative fee that ICMA-RC receives for administrative services provided to the 3-year and 5-year VT CD Accounts was reduced from 0.60% to half of the gross rate offered by the Bank, for all new investments. When the gross rates on newly offered 3-year and 5-year VT CD Accounts are equal to or greater than1.20%, the annual administrative fee will again be 0.60%. The annual administrative fee for 1-year VT CD Accounts is 0.60%.

Opening a CD Account: CD Accounts may be funded only through fund-to-fund transfers, and no minimum initial deposit is currently required.

Open Investment Window: Investments will be accepted from the first through the last business day of the open investment window, which will generally run from the last business day of the previous month through the second to last business day of the current month.

Maturity Date: CD Accounts are opened on the first business day following the close of the open investment window, and the maturity date will fall on a future anniversary of that date, based on the term of the CD Account.

Withdrawals: Participants can withdraw assets from a CD Account at any time, but withdrawals prior to the maturity date are subject to an early withdrawal penalty equal to 180 days of interest on the amount withdrawn, unless one of the exceptions identified below applies. The interest penalty is calculated as the gross rate of the CD Account (i.e., the net rate plus the Annual CD Administrative Fee).

Exceptions to the Early Withdrawal Penalty:
• The participant is deceased or disabled.
• The participant is judicially determined to be legally incompetent.
• The participant has separated from service with the Plan sponsor.
• The distribution is for any allowable purchase of permissive service credits.
• The distribution is for any allowable distribution of participant rollover account balances or any age 70½ distributions allowable under the Internal Revenue Code. or
• The distribution is required under a qualified domestic relations order.

Transfer Restrictions: Transfers from the PLUS Fund to CD Accounts are prohibited. Assets must be invested outside of the PLUS Fund in a non-competing fund for a period of 90 days before being transferred to CD Accounts.

FDIC Insurance: ICMA-RC will limit each participant’s aggregate investment in CD accounts to an amount less than $250,000. This limit includes principal, accrued interest, future interest, and any previously purchased VantageTrust CD Accounts issued by Countrywide Bank or MBNA. If an individual’s total investment in CD Accounts exceeds the $250,000 limit, ICMA-RC will transfer the excess amounts to the Plan’s designated maturity fund. Note that ICMA-RC can only limit a participant’s aggregate investment in CD Accounts through Plans administered by ICMA-RC.

Performance and Expenses

The performance quoted represents past performance, is no guarantee of future results, and is annualized for periods greater than one year. Investment returns and principal value will fluctuate, so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance shown. For current performance, contact ICMA-RC by calling 800-669-7400 or by visiting www.icmarc.org.

Indexes and peer groups are not available for direct investment. Indexes are unmanaged and do not reflect the costs of portfolio management or trading. A fund's portfolio may differ significantly from the securities held in the indexes or by peers.

[Peter Foley]

A couple key points which have already been addressed.
1. You need more in emergency funds.
2. If you have extra funds to invest, put them in your Roth rather than a 457 with high fees. Roth space is valuable because it is so limited. Use it while you can.

[pingo]

Effective October 28, 2011, the annual administrative fee that ICMA-RC receives for administrative services provided to the 3-year and 5-year VT CD Accounts was reduced from 0.60% to half of the gross rate offered by the Bank, for all new investments. When the gross rates on newly offered 3-year and 5-year VT CD Accounts are equal to or greater than1.20%, the annual administrative fee will again be 0.60%. The annual administrative fee for 1-year VT CD Accounts is 0.60%.

So, if I read this right, they'll charge you 1/2 of your annual yield up to 0.60%, in the case of 3 and 5 year CDs.

At B of A's website they show 5 year CDs with a yield of .50%, so you make 0.25% per year. Yikes.

At B of A's website they show 3 year CDs with a yield of .30%, so you make 0.15% per year. Double yikes.

Any 1 year CD is charged 0.60%, regardless. At B of A's website I see 1 year CDs with a yield of 0.20%. That's a -0.40% return nominal. Even less after inflation. TRIPLE YIKES.

So now we have to weigh the need for guaranteed safety (for emergency purposes) versus your options for housing the money...

[pingo]

My brain isn't working so well right now, so rather than wait to figure out the right plan (which could take far too long), I'll put out whatever comes to mind right now and let others correct me where I'm wrong.

You're already investing up to your employer match via your pension plan: 7% of your salary with a 2:1 match, er, back up the truck. Is that a match of 2x what you put in with guaranteed minimum returns of 5%? W o w .

Your first priorities: Emergency Fund and Roth as an Emergency Fund (Read the links.) Your Roth IRA can coalesce in this regard because your EF would be after-tax savings (like the Roth, so no tax-disadvantage there) and you can withdraw Roth contributions (not earnings) without penalty (not unlike a savings account, so no important dis-advantage there). Of course the idea is to never withdraw that money, but it's good to know you can if you absolutely must. If you skip saving inside the Roth for a given year, you'll never get back the opportunity, so the Emergency cash keeps the space open for you later once you've managed to also build your EF outside the Roth.

New annual savings of $10,200/yr.

Vanguard Roth IRA <--$5,500/yr. Contribution limits increased for 2013.
Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund (VMMXX) <--$3000 minimum.

For your remaining $4,700/yr savings, here are a couple of ideas:
U.S. Treasury Series I-Bonds
Savings account
PenFed.org CD

As for the 457, do what makes sense. A CD, bond fund, or leave your 457 portfolio as is. Remember, if you lose your job, you are able to withdraw the 457b money without penalty (you still pay taxes, but you'd presumibly be in a lower bracket due to losing your job) or roll it over to a Traditional IRA (which you might want to convert to a Roth because, again, you'd be in a lower tax bracket due to job loss). It could possibly serve as another backup, so keep that in mind when stretching for risks, er, I mean returns. Regardless, it's all going to get turned on its head once you have enough Emergency savings outside of tax-advantaged accounts.

457B <--No new contributions until EF is large enough outside tax-advantaged accounts.
Vantagepoint Cor Bnd Idx is okay.
Vantagepoint Brd Mkt Idx is even okay.

[pingo]

BTW how long you think it'll take to have enough Emergency Savings outside of your tax-advantage accounts if you are saving $4,700 per year? I guess you don't really have to answer that one. But be sure to come back and repost once you think you've got that EF 'cause then we can put your tax-advantaged money to work for retirement.