401k -- Bonds -- just before market crash

[BUG]

Hypthetically,    You see multiple factors pointing / leading to inevitable Market crash   ..........     but,   before that you manipulated your 401K to have in place  45% cash,  45% bonds, and 10 %  stocks  in order to reduce the overall loss to your 401K.     My question is ,    the 45 %  Bonds that you moved into   . .    what type of commitment comes with making that particular move  ?  When someone does that ,   are you now held accountable to remain in those particular Bonds for a particular amount of time ( maturity ) .    What is a minimum amount of time a person can participate in a Bond   ?

signed,      BUG

[ESOP Guy]

Your 401(k) plan should have fund notices and other information that can answer your question.   

If there are restrictions on selling a fund after buying (a pretty rare thing to see but it does happen) the notices and fund information provided by the plan will tell you. 

No one can tell  you for sure what your funds are like in the 401(k) plan you are participating in. 

I will say as a general rule most 401(k) plans are in bond mutual funds that allow you to buy/sell once a day.   If the plan has some kind of guarantee income fund they can SOMETIMES but not always have some buy/sell restrictions.   But I don't think I have seen one that was over 3 month.  

Based on how basic your questions are and how little you seem to understand the investments you might want to see if your employer offers any kind of investment education.  Ask about cost some is free and some comes with a cost so you can get a better understanding of your retirement plans.  

You might want to see if your local community college has an affordable basic investment/financial literacy class that is part of their adult education classes that aren't for credit.  My local community college offers an investment/401(k) basics type class that helps you understand how all of this better. 

[Bird]

Most funds have restrictions on jumping in and out (and in...).  It's not necessarily easy to find those rules but if you look for "frequent trading" restrictions you might find them, usually some combination of dollars (e.g. over $5000) and time (e.g. 30 days)...it might even be a catchall "we reserve the right to restrict trades for any reason."  Odds are pretty good that there isn't any practical effect though.

FYI a bond fund (which is what you'd be buying) is a combo of many individual bonds, and therefore doesn't have any particular maturity date (even individual bonds that have maturity dates can be bought and sold so you never have to hold til maturity...you might get less than face value though if interest rates rise, or the credit rating decreases, but we're getting in too deep I think).

[CuseFan]

Your plan should have an investment advisor you can go to for answers to your questions.

If not, and you have a sizable account balance, then you should consider your own fee for service advisor.

You can try to educate yourself to make the right decisions on a timely basis, but learning retirement plan investing on the fly is probably not a good idea unless you are fairly young and new in your career and retirement savings.

And no, I'm not an investment advisor.

[Larry Starr]

19 hours ago, BUG said:

Hypthetically,    You see multiple factors pointing / leading to inevitable Market crash   ..........     but,   before that you manipulated your 401K to have in place  45% cash,  45% bonds, and 10 %  stocks  in order to reduce the overall loss to your 401K.     My question is ,    the 45 %  Bonds that you moved into   . .    what type of commitment comes with making that particular move  ?  When someone does that ,   are you now held accountable to remain in those particular Bonds for a particular amount of time ( maturity ) .    What is a minimum amount of time a person can participate in a Bond   ?

signed,      BUG

So many things wrong with asking this question here. First, you will never know when the "inevitable" market crash will occur (there have been only 11 bear markets since 1946, and the average recovery time for those to recover to a new record high was only 24 months!).  Second, attempting market timing (which is what your question is all about) is a fool's errand, guaranteed to produce an abysmal rate of return compared to the actual market returns.  So, I have to reject the premises of your hypothetical.

As to the general question about "commitments", you need to talk to a real investment advisor (preferably, one associated with your plan if you actually have one that you are involved with) to see what, if any, restrictions are on investment movements (which is really your question; you can eliminate all the stuff about market timing a crash).

You have received some other responses, and they are fine. But you really need appropriate education, and you can't get that here for the specifics of your situation. Good luck.