Have You Checked Your Retirement Account Lately?

If you haven’t already done so, now would be a good time to check your retirement accounts to ensure they are balanced appropriately and that you are contributing as much as you can.  The maximum contribution amount for 2012 is $17,000 and if you’re 50 or older, you can contribute up to $22,500 to your retirement account.  I have tried to keep our contributions maxed out, and each year I have to remember to log in and make the necessary adjustments to the contribution percentage to keep up with the increasing limit from the IRS.

This year I also took a look at my 401k plan “Investment Adviser” (automated tools).  I was pleased to see that they said I had all of my allocations in line with their recommendations (at least they were pretty close) and the tool also said I was on target to retire with an adequate amount of funds to meet my goals.  I have a retirement target of 59 in the tool but I’d really like to stop working at least 5 years sooner than that.

Here’s a snapshot of my allocations and their recommendations:

It looks like they think I’m a bit too heavy on individual equities but I’m pretty happy with the overall allocations at this point.  I may shift a bit more of my contributions towards international equities over the next year to slowly start making a shift with new contributions but, for the most part, I’m going to leave things the way they are.  I should note that, besides the individual equities, I target low cost index funds to get our market exposure.  I’m not a huge fan of managed funds and tend to stay away from them.  It’s also worth noting that I’m not using the “allocation by age” funds that my plan has.