Google offers a 401(k) retirement savings plan for its employees, which is a type of defined contribution plan. Employees can choose to contribute a portion of their pre-tax or after-tax income to the plan, and Google matches a percentage of those contributions, up to a certain amount.
Form 5500 lists the investments Google 401(k) plan participants selected for their retirement funds—giving us insight into how Google employees choose to invest for retirement. 401(k) plan sponsors are required to file Form 5500 with the Department of Labor each year.
So, what do Google employees invest in?
The first thing to note is that they don’t directly invest in shares of Google stock. As opposed to some other tech companies (e.g., Amazon), Google doesn’t offer their own shares as an investment option.
Target date retirement funds account for the majority of Google employee’s retirement investments.
These funds are designed to shift their holdings as the target retirement year approaches. They gradually shift to more bonds and fewer equities. In other words, they become more conservative as time passes.
The largest of these holdings is the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050, designed for people planning to retire around the year 2050.
Target retirement funds occupy 7 of the top 10 holdings.
Coming in third place—at 13% of plan assets—is the low-cost Vanguard Institutional 500 Index Trust. This fund tracks the performance of the S&P 500 Index, representing around 500 of the largest companies in the United States—a great choice for a core investment holding.
The Vanguard Extended Market Index fund and the Vanguard Developed Market Index fund round out the top 10 holdings. Coming in at 8th and 9th place respectively.
Plan assets as of 12/31/2021
(from Google’s 2022 filing of Form 5500)
| Top 10 Investments | % |
| Vanguard Target 2050 | 15% |
| Vanguard Target 2045 | 13% |
| Vanguard Institutional 500 Index | 13% |
| Vanguard Target 2055 | 12% |
| Vanguard Target 2040 | 8% |
| Vanguard Target 2060 | 5% |
| Vanguard Target 2035 | 5% |
| Vanguard Extended Market Index | 4% |
| Vanguard Developed Market Index | 3% |
| Vanguard Target 2030 | 3% |
See the Google 401(k) page for additional plan details and value of holdings.
Google’s Retirement Distribution
The distribution of assets in Vanguard Target Retirement funds—which represent nearly two-thirds of total plan assets—provide a rough view of participating employee ages.
The largest holdings are in the Retirement 2050 and 2045 target funds. These investments should represent employees who plan to retire in the next 20 to 30 years.
Source: 2021 Form 5500 for Google’s 401k plan
