<prompt> Human: So my work provides 457b and 401a plans through nationwide, neither of which I understand being a young dumb adult. I thought retirement was putting away money and your work place matches with a and it sits there and builds interest over the years. This plan has the Nationwide Target Destination Series which Ive come to understand is dealing with stocksunless Im wrong?. Im personally not a big fan of the high risk high reward stock market and would like to know what Im getting myself into. TLDR; what am I getting myself into with the Nationwide Target Destination Series retirement plan. Edit: thanks everyone you all make more sense than the person they sent to explain it to me  <response>: Dont worry about not knowing enough - you will learn more as you go - the biggest mistake you can make here is not investing, and regardless of the vehicle you put your funds in your future self will thank your past self.That being said there are a few things to consider:1. You see the risk of stock market volatility, but the risk that most people do not see is the risk of not having enough money at retirement which is compounded by inflation risk e.g. risk of your money de-valuing over time. There are a few corollary parts to this:a. Math here Dont panic! The statement is valid, you can skip the math part if you need. Compounding interest makes retirement possible e.g. y1 1,000 invested 10 return 1,100. y2 incremental 1,000 invested 10 return 1,100 1,100 y1 10 return in y2 2,310 - compare this to just adding the two together 2,000. This gap widens significantly over time.b. The stock market is volatile at any one point in time, but over time is consistent google search a SP 500 history from 1900 - 2010. The graph will show lots of up and down spikes, but will always trend in an upward direction. What this means, is if you need money near term liquid you shouldnt have that portion in the stock market. If you need it long term retirement the stock market is a great place to put it.2. Best way to invest in the stock market is to put your funds in index funds and forget them - Index funds group companies together so you are investing in the market as a whole vs. any one company. You want to be diversified reduces risk - so some in US Index funds, some in International.a. To the diversified point, some of your funds should also be invested in Money Market - e.g. bonds or otherb. Do not panic in market downturns and take your money out! This is the easiest way to lose money. If youre in a market index fund, have faith it will always recover reference the stock market graph again - big dips happen, but they recover. If anything, you should be moving money into the stock market in a downturn!c. Look for low fee index funds - Vanguard or similar if available Fees sound low, but significantly reduce your return. E.G. a 0.5 fee in a year of 5 return a 10 reduction of your gains - 2 fee a 40 reduction - this is a big difference3. Due to point 1. b. above, your allocation of investments should change over time. e.g. when youre young and dont need retirement funds soon, you should be more invested in the stock market re: upward trend. When youre older, you would transfer a higher proportion of your wealth into Bonds Money Market or other vehicles so that when you need to pull it out, you wont accidentally be in a stock market dip you want to pull out funds in a stock market peak when possible. a. You can make more money managing this yourself, but an easier way to do this is to use the Target Funds that you referenced. They will manage the proportion in money market vs. stocks based on your target retirement date. I recommend researching and doing yourself, but up to you your confidence level. 