<prompt> Human: I was looking at the Targeted Retirement Funds here I hope that link works. If you look at all of those years, the average Since Inception fund performance is sitting around 4-6.5My understanding as that its usual to assume an average of 8 gains. Does this percentage not mean what I think it means?Sorry for the possibly stupid question. Thanks in advance.  <response>: Most of those funds have only been around since 2003 or 2006, which isnt really a long enough timeline for their Since Inception performance to match up with what would be expected. Short-term returns on equities can vary widely, but if youve investing for the long term, you shouldnt let this scare you off. I use one of the Vanguard Target Retirement funds and love it because it allows me to invest on autopilot without me having to rebalance every 5 years. Im confident that by the time I retire this funds performance will more closely match the long-term average of the market. 