<prompt> Human: Im going to contribute 5500 to my Roth IRA soon but I am new to all of this so I am not sure how to decide what mutual funds I should get. My IRA is through Schwab so the last time I did this I got a one time consultation where I spoke with a broker and he told me what mutual funds I should get I just followed it exactly. I cant do that again so I need to figure this out for myself now. First off I just want to say that I am leaning to getting mutual funds over stocks, bonds and ETFs for the following reasons:Stocks - I dont follow the stock market or anything so I think this would be too risky for meBonds- The broker I spoke with basically told me that they are similar to mutual funds except safer and less likely to get a large yield. Since Im relatively young I would prefer to get a larger yieldETFs - The broker I spoke with told me they are very similar to mutual funds. I have only worked with mutual funds in the past so I figure I should stick with what Im familiar with.Should I maybe consider getting any of these instead? Or are mutual funds a good choice?I want to make sure my Asset Allocation is good. I am only 26 years old so I figure I want my money to grow as much as possible since I will not touch it until Im 60 so I chose the Moderate Aggressive asset allocation. This means I am shooting for 45 Large Cap, 15 Small Cap, 20 International, 15 Fixed Income and 5 Cash. What do you guys think? Is this a good target asset allocation to be shooting for?And the next step, actually purchasing the mutual funds. How do you decide what to get? I am basically just choosing mutual funds based on their Morningstar ratings. Is this an okay strategy? Or should I be doing something elsemore??Thanks for any help!  <response>: I am shooting for 45 Large Cap, 15 Small Cap, 20 International, 15 Fixed Income and 5 Cash. What do you guys think? Is this a good target asset allocation to be shooting for?Its fine, but needlessly complex in my opinion. With Schwab you can get the proper exposure to all three of the major asset classes with three funds: the Schwab Total US Market Index SWTSX, International Index fund SWISX, and the Total Bond Market fund SWLBX.And the next step, actually purchasing the mutual funds. How do you decide what to get? I am basically just choosing mutual funds based on their Morningstar ratings. Is this an okay strategy? Or should I be doing something elsemore??You decide which funds to get based on your asset allocation. You should probably read the FAQ and the sidebar links. 