<prompt> Human: Backstory When I graduated from a state university I had zero debt and it was basically 90 paid for with scholarships. Since my parents saved money on this they decided to graciously give me the money to start a ROTH IRA. Ever since then Ive been contributing the maximum each year. It started out in a Merrill Edge account and I never actually invested any of it. At all. 20,000 made 11 in interest in 4 years. Im terrible at this, I know. My dad told me to set up a new ROTH IRA with Vanguard and transfer all of the money from Merrill Edge to the new account. Im still in the process of doing the transferring, but I have the account set up with the option to choose investments when I want to.So now I will have approximately 25K in Vanguard once it all clears and goes through and I know I need to invest it. Problem is I have no idea how to even begin choosing which stocks and bonds I want. Theres a generic option where they do all the work for you, you just choose your projected retirement age and they adjust everything for you each year. Im strongly leaning toward that but family and friends are telling me to choose my own investments.Any advice or some really easy to understand beginners guides? Whenever I try reading stuff online it just doesnt click and I feel really overwhelmed.EDIT: Okay, it looks like the target retirement fund is definitely the way to go for now at least! Thank you all for the quick responses and not making me feel silly for asking this. Ill definitely make it a goal to read and research into this more so I can start getting a better grasp on investing.  <response>: Dont be intimidated. Its so simple. Read Boggleheads Guide to Investing. Your library will have a copy. That is so you know why you are doing what youre doing. Like others said a target fund is a great choice.If you dont want to do a target fund, I would suggest Wellington 