<prompt> Human: I am about to start saving for retirement and have a couple questions. My pre-tax income will be 68.5k about 76k after bonuses and I am not eligible for company 401K until one year of work. Right now my plan is to max out a Roth IRA. I plan on using Vanguard, but cannot decide whether I should choose my own index funds or go with an index target retirement fund. My biggest question is the current fund Im looking at ends in 2055, which would put me at 62. Initially, I plan on working until 65-67 so what do you do with these funds once you hit the target date? Do you simply just put into another fund bonds most likely until ready for retirement? Im also wondering if the target retirement fund is even the right route to take. Thanks for any advice  <response>: The target date funds dont really end when they reach the target date. Theyre automatically merged into a general retirement fund after a few years. Specifically, I think Vanguard merges them into VTINX, which is 70 bonds and 30 stocks.Id just invest into the target date index for now. Keep in mind that you can change which funds youre in at any time though it takes a business day for the change to go through.Since you dont have to worry about capital gains in an IRA, there shouldnt be any consequences for switching funds later. Once you have more money in the account maybe 10k to 20k, or more you might want to switch from the target date fund to separate funds including at least one with admiral-class shares, just to reduce the overall expense ratio a little. 