Comments on: Target Retirement Funds Pros And Cons

By: –› Holiday Travel, Shopping, and Your Retirement

–› Holiday Travel, Shopping, and Your Retirement — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:46:09 +0000

[...] Targeted Retirement Funds Offer a (Nearly) Hands-Free Approach to Retirement Investing I’m a big fan of the target retirement funds from Vanguard. I use them for many of my family members. [...]

By: Have We Been Sold A Bunch Of Lies About Money? | Frugal Dad

Have We Been Sold A Bunch Of Lies About Money? | Frugal Dad — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:47:39 +0000

[...] My 401(k) has been demolished. Family member’s 401(k)s have been demolished, even those in target retirement funds that should have been comprised of more conservative options based on their upcoming target [...]

By: Four Pillars Investing

Four Pillars Investing — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:02:51 +0000

[...] Dad wrote about his retirement planning including the use of targeted retirement [...]

By: Friday Link Love - Holiday Kickoff Edition | One Caveman's Financial Journey

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:45:25 +0000

[...] Targeted Retirement Funds Offer a (Nearly) Hands-Free Approach to Retirement Investing – Frugal Dad [...]

By: PT

PT — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:25:03 +0000

I’ve been contributing to a TDF for a year now in my current 401k. I rolled over a previous 401k into it as well. Mine is priced fairly reasonable from what I can tell. The things is, this is only one of my retirement accounts. I have an IRA and a Roth IRA which don’t use TDFs.

All that to say, I’m not terribly worried about the diversification or allocation of these funds, or the current results. It’s mostly US companies anyway. US companies will come around by the time I retire, if not a year from now. Heck, there will be a few more of these downturn I’m sure between now and retirement.

You just have to ask yourself whether you believe in the American capitalist society. If you think people are going to get up tomorrow and go create products and services of value, then you’re bearish on the US economy in the long run. We’re the US, we kick ars and raise stock prices. Just ride it out.

I feel sorry for the dude who was all up in stocks and is retiring next year.

Sorry for the tangent.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:18:59 +0000

I just began the process of opening a TRF today, in an effort to create a repository where I can rollover future 401k’s. I’m pretty sure I’m going to change jobs with increasing frequency as I get older, so I figure that after each change I would need a place to put them. Thanks for the link!

By: DavidK

DavidK — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:31:51 +0000

They basically have the same thing for the two 401K programs I’ve participated in. You may set a particular retirement date and the program will automatically move your investment funds from aggressive to moderate to conservative at predetermined time spans. Unlike the Roth TRF though, you may change your retirement date or even move the investment monies around in your 401K as you wish. Though they do say that once you pull out of the targeted date plan, you basically cannot jump back in again.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:27:07 +0000

My TRF is down 36.58% over the past year, and down 16.88% over the past five years (target date 2035); the upside is that I just started contributing recently, the downside is that I chose to contribute a decent chunk of my paycheck and have lost -well, it’s a significant amount, for a frugal, coupon-clipping gal whose husband has been laid off. I’m looking at some of the money market and bond funds and thinking how nice it would be to be up 3% instead of down 36%. Question for anyone more knowledgeable than I (most anyone): Even if I dont get the pre-tax break, if I took the same amount of money, after taxes, and siphoned it into, say, an ING account… wouldn’t I be off in a high yield savings account after-tax than hemorrhaging money out of my pre-tax Simple IRA? Ugh.

By: RDS @ Smart Financial Values

RDS @ Smart Financial Values — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:31:13 +0000

Mr. Tough Money Love is absolutely right. TRF can be great, but they are all very different. On the balance, I find that most of them are too conservative and two expensive for me. But if you look around, you can find some good ones. The best TRFs that I am aware of are the funds inside the Federal Government’s TSP.

By: Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:28:39 +0000

@A Dad’s Life: Well, like most people, my funds have taken quite a beating! Fortunately (I guess) the Roth IRA was still young so I have yet to invest much money before the market fell. My 401(k) was down around 35% last time I checked, but as you say, the time horizon is long, so I can afford to be patient.