<prompt> Human: Main question: Do I invest all of the money in my roth ira to a retirement target fund, or only a portion of it?Im still learning about investing and would like to know this. So, lets say Ive max out the 5,500 limit for the Roth. Do I put all of the 5,500 into my target fund or only a portion of that?Just putting xxx amount of money into a Roth IRA doesnt do anything right - as its sitting in a market fund? The money doesnt increasedecrease. It is the process of putting it into say a target fund that actually generates profitloss. Am I correct?  <response>: You do have to make a decision about how to invest it. The Roth IRA is like a container that has certain tax advantages. But inside that container you can hold what you want. Some people use CDs, bonds, mutual funds, stocks, etc. When you open an IRA it very likely is the case that what you start funding is a simple thing like a money market fund, which isnt likely to have any change in value. Its a sort of holding area where you can stow it while you make a decision. Or you can have dividends from a mutual fund sent over into it. If you have decided that a target date fund or other selection of funds is what you want, then you have to transfer money from that money market to the target date fund. In a tax advantaged space, this doesnt create any tax issues. In a regular investment account, youd have to sell one thing and buy the other; and selling might incur capital gains or losses. Thats great for new investors, because it means you have the freedom to change your mind and make a different selection.The profitloss within the specific investment you choose then depends on the performance of that investment.In a regular investment account, every year dividends would be taxed, and maybe there would be cap gains distributions to be taxed from sales within the fund. You dont need to worry about that in the retirement account. So any activity like dividends being reinvested doesnt generate any tax reporting issues. When you take money out of the account later on, if its a traditional IRA, what you take out is treated like ordinary income and taxed then. If its a Roth IRA, its tax-free. 