Fidelity 4 in 1 fund

[rpow53]

my wife has about $174000 in a roll over IRA that we will not need for 10+ years. I am looking at putting about $95000 in the 4 in 1 fund. can I get some feed back on this fund. some one with more experience in this fund than me. It just looks like a good all around fund since it covers 4 indexs.the rest of the money is in large cap, small cap, mid cap and inter. funds. just looking to put some money away that I don't have to rebalance every year.

[ats5g]

The fund is great if you want a fund that is 85% stocks [20% of which is in int'l stocks] and 15% bonds. It holds virtually every stock in the developed world and is low cost. It also should rebalance for you.

However, are you comfortable with 85% stocks? That's the real question. Would you have been able to stand it when FFNOX lost 30% of its value [as in 00-02]? If not, then perhaps something closer to 40 or 50% bonds may be more appropriate.

Also, you should probably consider all of your retirement investments as one big pot of money from which you'll be withdrawing. Money is money. It's all fungible.

Using a fund-of-funds, like FFNOX, along with separate stock and bond mutual funds may add one more fund and just make your portfolio more confusing than it has to be. These funds-of-funds are designed to be one stop shopping for all of your needs. For example, say you decide that you want your overall portfolio to be 60% stocks and 40% bonds, a quite simple way to acheive this would be to put everything into a balanced fund that has 60% stocks and 40% bonds [like VWELX, VGSTX, or VSMGX].

btw - if you've got part of your portfolio in a balanced fund or Fund-of-funds, and the rest in other mutual funds, you're still going to have to rebalance everything at some point.

- Alec