An interesting post over at Get Rich Slowly: How to Create Your Own Target-Date Mutual Fund. I’m not totally convinced that the author’s grocery store metaphor is apt, but I think his point warrants thinking about: When you allow an investment firm to bundle up a package of stocks and bonds that you buy, there’s the potential for problems — the investment firm essentially gets to decide what their profit’s going to be, and there’s not necessarily a guarantee that you’re going to get the best stocks / bonds (best for you, that is) in your mix.
That being said, there’s a tremendous benefit to signing up with a target-date fund, in that it gets you started. As long as you have the minimum amount to get started, it takes hardly any time at all to just get going. If you have to evaluate the various stocks and bonds you’d like to purchase, it’s all-too-easy to just sit on the decision and to never get around to it. Just get going, and if you decide the pre-built target-date fund isn’t right for you, change it. But, again, just get started.
Again, here’s the post at Get Rich Slowly: How to Create Your Own Target-Date Mutual Fund.