"Default User" <d...@y...com> writes:

> Mike wrote:
>
> > The Vanguard fund has a lower expense ratio, and I like the tools on
> > its website, but it also has a $25 annual fee.
>
> Are you sure? Vanguard charges a $20 fee for any fund with less than
> $10,000 in it, but that's nothing specific to TR 2045. Do you have less
> than that amount in aggregate? Also, Vanguard waives that fee if you
> elect for electronic statements.

There's a $25/fund fee if it's in a SIMPLE IRA, but it
doesn't sound like the OP is in one of those. No such
fee on nonretirement, IRA, Roth IRA, SEP-IRA of ESAs.

And, as you said, that fee's waived if you get electronic
delivery. The OP said he had about $50k across his
accounts - if that all went into the target 2045 fund,
he'd have no fees and still get all the paper statements.

The Fidelity Freedom fund-of-funds spreads their
assets across 23 different Fidelity funds (some of
which are quite good) - but that's a lot of
underlying funds, and most of them are actively
managed and just a bit too messy for my taste.

The Vanguard Target Retirement fund-of-funds spreads
their assets across 5 very efficient index funds. The
asset allocation is much easier to understand, the
fees are very much lower, the tax implications (important
if this is not a tax-favored account) are substantial -
there should be a lot less tax drag on the Vanguard
fund-of-funds.

Morningstar loves the Vanguard and the T. Rowe Price
target retirement funds.

If you had to put your retirement money, especially
money for long long future retirement (ie. our 38? yr
old OP), these are all decent options. Most folks
who muck about managing and trading and/or even just
selecting multiple funds on their own are probably
going to do far worse than someone who simply goes
into one of these and lets the fund do its job.

To the OP - you said these are all "retirement" funds -
is this all regular or Roth IRA accounts?

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