<prompt> Human: My employer is offering a SIMPLE IRA with American Funds. Initially I was told they would go with Vanguard but their lovely financial advisor from Edward Jones convinced them to go with American Funds. They are doing a 3 match. From my understanding, they are only offering class A shares which come with a 5.75 sales charge. I was thinking about doing the target date fund 2055 or 2050 with ERs of 0.77 and 0.76 respectively. My initial thought is to contribute the minimum for the match and call it a day. However, is it really worth the match with those fees? Please give me your pros and cons as Im new to all of this! I also would love an equation to figure this out on my own. Do the expense ratios compound? Is the sales charge a one time fee when you set it up? HELP!  <response>: You contribute 100 therefore your employer contributes 100. The sales charge is 11.50. You now have 188.50 in your account, 88.50 more than you would have had otherwise.Hopefully that helps to put it into perspective for you. 