Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

which types of investments should be choosen for 401k at early 20's?
The question you should be asking yourself is this: "Why am I putting money into a 401(k)?" For many people, the answer is to grow a (large) nest egg and save for future retirement expenses. Investors are balancing risk and potential reward, so the asset categories you're putting your 401(k) contribution towards will be a reflection on how much risk you're willing to take. Per a US News & World Report article: Ultimately, investors would do well to remember one of the key tenants   of investing: diversify. The narrower you are with your investments,   the greater your risk, says Vanguard's Bruno: "[Diversification]   doesn't ensure against a loss, but it does help lessen a significant   loss." Generally, investing in your employer's stock in your 401(k) is considered very risk. In fact, one Forbes columnist recommends not putting any money into company stock. FINRA notes: Simply stated, if you put too many eggs in one basket, you can expose yourself to significant risk. In financial terms, you are under-diversified: you have too much of   your holdings tied to a single investment—your company's stock.   Investing heavily in company stock may seem like a good thing when   your company and its stock are doing well. But many companies   experience fluctuations in both operational performance and stock   price. Not only do you expose yourself to the risk that the stock   market as a whole could flounder, but you take on a lot of company   risk, the risk that an individual firm—your company—will falter or   fail. In simpler terms, if you invest a large portion of your 401(k) funds into company stock, if your company runs into trouble, you could lose both your job AND your retirement investments. For the other investment assets/vehicles, you should review a few things: Personally, I prefer to keep my portfolio simple and just pick just a few options based on my own risk tolerance. From your fund examples, without knowing specifics about your financial situation and risk tolerance, I would have created a portfolio that looks like this when I was in my 20's: I avoided the bond and income/money market funds because the growth potential is too low for my investing horizon. Like some of the other answers have noted, the Target Date funds invest in other funds and add some additional fee overhead, which I'm trying to avoid by investing primarily in index funds. Again, your risk tolerance and personal preference might result in a completely different portfolio mix.