it takes energy to turn coal into oil. you'd need local power stations (nuclear would be the most efficient and cleanest) to process it without transporting it (transportation would be inefficient and you'd have to have extra power generation without driving up power costs in the area that processing occured).

unfortunately, power plants don't build as fast as they do in simcity. any plants operating now would have had to have something magical known as "forward thinking". I don't think we have any of that here in the States.

Your current selections (as diversification options) are excellent. You want to be on the look out, however, for low cost index funds or a lower cost managed funds for your selections within those categories. The first part is much more important. The main piece of the second part is not to try to "guess" which fund will "do better" next year, but rather to ensure that you have a fund that (1) really fits your master category ("Foreign Equities, for example) in the details, (2) doesn't cost too much in annual expenses, and (3) performs at least as well as an index fund in that same category a majority of the time.

Equity and bond investments for retirement are not like short term cash investments ("savings accounts"). You should not expect them to go up a certain percent ever year. That just isn't how they work. And, at 29, their short term performance is relevant only to the extent that they are at least matching their benchmark. Pay too much attention to the month-to-month or year-to-year changes and you will make the wrong choices at exactly the wrong time and mess up your long term average anual return (making it lower than it otherwise would be). Don't worry about anything for at least 10 years except to see that they are properly crediting and rebalancing your account. After 10 years you should see that the account is moving toward your goals on a three year rolling average basis.

If you want to retire early (<68 for your age group), you need to be saving at least 10%. 7% simply isn't enough. If you wait until 35+ to bump it up, you will need at least 12% to retire early.

isn't it amazing how we can both be technically correct but that by saying it this or that way one can give it a really good spin?