Is a target retirement date fund good enough for my 457b?
I'm a state employee with a 457b through Empower, and my investment options are limited to a small number of funds.
I'm 28, and I've heard that these target date retirement funds are often more conservative than they should be for someone of my age group. For example, the fund is currently 4.27% bonds (which increases over time) which seems pretty unnecessarily conservative at my age. I have a personal Roth IRA that I have entirely invested in VT, and was considering an allocation similar to that.
Is it worth switching to some combination of "Large Company Stock Index Fund", "Small Company Stock Index Fund", and "International Stock Index Fund"? Or is the target date fund good enough and I'm just overthinking it?
These are all my options:
| Fund | Category | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| SMARTPath 2065 Retirement Fund | Target Date | $31,617.63 |
| SMARTPath Retirement Allocation Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2015 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2020 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2025 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2030 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2035 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2040 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2045 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2050 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2055 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2060 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| SMARTPath 2070 Retirement Fund | Target Date | — |
| International Stock Index Fund | International | — |
| International Equity Fund | International | — |
| Real Estate REIT Fund | Specialty | — |
| Small Company Stock Fund | Small Cap | — |
| Small Company Stock Index Fund | Small Cap | — |
| Large Company Value Stock Fund | Large Cap | — |
| Large Company Blend Stock Fund | Large Cap | — |
| Large Company Growth Stock Fund | Large Cap | — |
| Large Company Stock Index Fund | Large Cap | — |
| High Yield Bond Fund | Bond | — |
| Diversified Bond Fund | Bond | — |
| Bond Index Fund | Bond | — |
| Treas Inflation Protection TIPS Idx Fd | Bond | — |
| Income Fund | Bond | — |
| SMART Capital Preservation Fund | Stable Value | — |
This is what I'm currently invested in, along with the funds I'm considering:
| Fund | Category | Brief summary |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------: |
| SMARTPath 2065 Retirement Fund | Target Date | Diversified all-in-one fund. Currently holds 44.54% U.S. large-cap, 14.88% U.S. small-cap, 32.37% international stocks, 3.94% real estate, and 4.27% bonds. Automatically becomes more conservative over time. Total fees: 0.08%. |
| Large Company Stock Index Fund | Large Cap | S&P 500 index fund. Very low-cost option for U.S. large-cap stocks. Expense ratio: 0.01%. | 59.5% |
| Small Company Stock Index Fund | Small Cap | Tracks the Russell 2000, providing U.S. small-cap exposure. Expense ratio: 0.02%. | 2.8% |
| International Stock Index Fund | International | Broad international index exposure including developed, emerging, and international small-cap stocks. Expense ratio: 0.04%. | 37.7% |