<prompt> Human: I will be graduating from college soon and have decided to open a Roth IRA with Vanguard. I dont have the option of opening a 401k. After doing some research and learning more about Vanguard Ive discovered that they offer a majority of their funds at a minimum 3k, however they have a few lower priced funds to help investors start out. These are price at 1k, specifically the Target Retirement funds. From my research it seems like the best way to go about starting up an IRA with Vanguard is to invest in a Target Retirement fund until I have enough money in the account to invest in the individual funds that make up the Target Retirement funds VTI, VXUS, BND. Before I start setting up my account Id like to learn a little bit more about opening an IRA with Vanguard. Is it the right way to go about an IRA with them? Are there other paths that Id be better off taking?In addition to these questions I have a few more specific questions as well assuming I open an IRA with Vanguard:1. When I open my IRA account my plans are to invest 1k into the account to start off and then contribute on a monthly basis as to max out my IRA contribution of 5,500. Investing 1k right off the bat will allow me to get started with my investing. Now assuming I have opened my account and invested in a Target Retirement Fund 2060. Am I essentially buying 1 share in that retirement fund? Or am I paying 1k as an initial payment and now I have the ability to invest money freely into that fund. So for example, Ive invested 1000 in the Target Retirement Fund 2060, a month has gone buy and Im ready to deposit 500 more into the account. Can I put that 500 toward the principal balance in my Target Retirement Fund 2060 1500? Or do I have to wait to deposit an additional 500 in the account 1000 total to buy another share in the Target Retirement Fund 2060? Would I then be at an advantage to invest 1000 every 2 months instead of 500 every month? If I were to deposit 500 into the account after my initial 1000 deposit after opening the account and investing in the Target Retirement Fund 2060, what happens to that 500? Is it just sitting in an account with no more of an advantage than sitting in my savings account until I have 1000 to invest?2. 2 years have gone buy and I have invested 9000 in my Vanguard IRA account assuming zero interest has accrued. So I have either 9000 in my Target Retirement Fund 2060 or I have 9 shares of Target Retirement Fund 2060 this is part of my question 1 What is the advantage of cashing out of my Target Retirement Fund 2060 and purchasing with my 9000 3 Vanguard mutual funds, Vanguard Total Stock, Vanguard Total International Stock, and Vanguard Total Bond 3000 each other than the ability to have more control over my portfolio?  <response>: 1. As long as you meet the minimum investment amount initially, you can buy in as small an increment as you want. This may not be the case for all funds, but for Vanguard it is at least all the funds Ive seen. Vanguard also has some smaller minimums for IRAs.2. The main advantage of managing your own portfolio allocation is a reduced expense. The target date funds will be a little more expensive than the individual mutual funds or ETFs. Obviously youre also free to allocate things how you please, as well.As an aside, mutual funds shares numbers are pretty flexible: you place an order, its executed at the end of the day, and you buy as many shares as you can afford Shares Amount InvestedNet Asset Value. If you get a dividend, usually its reinvested you have control over this.You might like ETFs. Vanguard has admiral shares for most funds, which are basically the same mutual fund as the investor share, but with a larger minimum purchase buy-in and lower expense ratio. Their ETFs usually have the same ER as these shares. The only real disadvantage is that you cant buy fractional shares of ETFs though dividends are reinvested as fractional shares, so you could end up with a couple extra bucks sitting around your account from month-to-month. 