<prompt> Human: I am currently contributing about 15 of my income to a 401k. I have been doing this for about a year. My employer only matches up to 6. The 401K charges a fee of 1.5. I was looking up vanguard and some of their index funds charge a fee of 0.05 for 10K investements and 0.17 for 3k investments. I was thinking of only contributing what my employer matched and putting the rest in an vanguard index fund. I know that the benefit of doing a 401k is getting pretaxed on your investment but is that tax benefit enough to offset a 1.5 management fee? Some info about me. 30 years old. No debt. 50k a year. No mortgage. No car payment. No kids. In a year or two I would like to take some time off to do a round the world trip for a year.  <response>: Please read the information found in the wiki particularly I Have X ... What Do I Do With It?! You may find Your IRA and You: Basic Information and Your 401k and You: Basic Information worth a read as well.Performance of a Vanguard index fund is not comparable to that of a 401k because a 401k is just an account in which you hold various investments. If you are saving for retirement you should use your tax advantaged accounts like a 401k or IRA before taxable accounts. 