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The Best Fidelity Funds for 401(k) Retirement Savers

The days when successful mutual fund managers received the rock-star treatment are long gone. But when they did, many of them were busy helming the best Fidelity funds.

These days, the Boston-based firm wins attention for other parts of its business - it launched the industry's first zero-fee index funds in 2018, for example. And yet, the firm's lineup of actively managed mutual funds still includes a slew of standouts run by long-tenured managers.

Eighteen Fidelity funds are popular with retirement savers, according to the list of funds with the most 401(k) assets, provided by financial-data firm BrightScope. Seven are from the firm's Freedom target-date fund series, four are index funds and seven are actively managed.

Here are some of the best Fidelity funds for your 401(k), as well as a couple popular options that don't make the cut. We will analyze the actively managed portfolios and the Freedom target-date funds, and rate them Buy, Sell or Hold.

Fidelity Balanced: BUY

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Symbol: FBALX

Expense ratio: 0.53%

One-year return: 3.7%

Three-year annualized return: 9.3%

Five-year annualized return: 7.5%

10-year annualized return: 9.7%

Rank among the top 100 401(k) funds: #50

Best for: Investors looking for an all-in-one, 60% stock, 40% bond portfolio.

Reasonable risk is part of Fidelity Balanced's mandate. The fund achieves this by investing roughly 60% of assets in stocks, for growth, and 40% in bonds, which offer stability and income.

Still, it's worth noting that Fidelity Balanced is a tad more volatile than its balanced-fund peers (mutual funds

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