Q. I am 26 and work for a mutual fund company. I have a balance of $10,500 in my 401(k) plan, of which 30 percent is in company stock, 30 percent in Evergreen fund, 25 percent in a Standard & Poor's 500 index fund, and 15 percent in Evergreen Balanced fund. My company matches 100 percent of the first 6 percent of salary I contribute, and I add a further 3 percent. Two additional options have recently been added to your 401(k) menu -- Evergreen International Growth and Mentor Growth. I plan to retire around age 65, and want to know what allocation would work best to maximize returns. I do not wish to reallocate the existing money, but would rather like to change the selection of funds for new money. How would you position this portfolio among these six options?

A.D., Boston

A. This is a little difficult, because a balanced fund has no place in a portfolio that has 39 years to grow. If you insist on keeping Evergreen Balanced -- which is a solid enough fund -- I suggest you stop contributing to that account for . . . oh, make it about 30 years.

But I would much rather see you move out entirely, into a more growth-oriented portfolio. Allocation might run along these lines: 30 percent company stock, 25 percent in the index offering, and 15 percent each in the mid-cap growth fund (Evergreen fund), the international offering (Evergreen International Growth), and the small-cap growth fund (Mentor).

If you are unwilling to make any transfers, you'll have to juggle your allocations of new money to reach those levels. Thus, you might begin by dividing all new money to Evergreen International Growth and Mentor funds until each account is 15 percent of the total portfolio, and then dividing contributions evenly among company stock, the index fund, the international fund, and the small-cap fund.

Continue this until you have brought the Evergreen position down to 25 percent. At that point, you can allocate money among the various funds according to the target positions, rebalancing annually. As for the balanced fund position, I would leave it out of the calculations.