“US Large Cap Stock Index Fund” is the plan fund set up to track the S&P 500.

Do you know the specific fee difference between the two, the target date fun fees vs their index funds at fidelity?

.17 vs . 01. Sounds like nothing but the lost returns compound every year.

The next question is if you get anything for your money. The target date funds lag the S&P500 index by 50%. But that's ok if they protect you during drawdowns. Oops, they don't do that either because of the correlation between stock and bond fund returns.

In short, like most Wall Street innovations they don't do what they claim but they do generate more fees. Too lazy to watch your portfolio? Then buy some index funds and turn on automatic rebalancing.

But being too lazy to manage your money is just like being too lazy to bid. If you choose that route don't whine when it doesn't turn out like you hoped.

I do 50% US Large Cap Stk & 50% US Large Cap Growth . 30+ years before retirement, I refuse to pay a high expense ratio for a lower annual return (historically).

A couple hours of reading and you'll be much smarter. It's about 3 hrs (?). Add another hour if you start flipping back and forth comparing different charts/timeframes in the book.

You can choose how often you evaluate your distribution. Some review/rebalance on a 6 or 12 month basis, some rebalance on a 5%/20% imbalance limit. The book explains this - younger might be 80/20 stock/bonds. If the 80/20 split reaches a 5% change (75/25 or 85/15) they rebalance. Within each stock/bond you'll have 7-12 (?) funds. If those get out of whack by 20% amongst their own group (ie stock funds vs other stock funds, bond funds vs bond funds) the high fund (up by 20%) is rebalanced among the lower than expected funds. The book/video explains the concept.

Plus a 1:03 video of the author speaking to Google employees who just became millionaires -

https://www.amazon.com/Smartest-Investment-Book-Youll-Ever/dp/0399535993/ref=pd_lpo_sccl_2/140-3762055-8667720?pd_rd_w=zCncx&content-id=amzn1.sym.116f529c-aa4d-4763-b2b6-4d614ec7dc00&pf_rd_p=116f529c-aa4d-4763-b2b6-4d614ec7dc00&pf_rd_r=FASRAN7FW2KTQ0KGX0KZ&pd_rd_wg =PYsvM&pd_rd_r=4d974e06-3436-483b-9072-bf1e79bb9868&pd_rd_i=0399535993&psc=1


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0LSG2omvEg

Do you guys know if there is a difference in fees or taxes etc between using the "US Large Cap Stock Index Fund" from Fidelity to follow the S&P for my 401k (from the same selection where it has the "Target Date" options) vs doing the above mentioned brokerage method and then buying FXAIX or maybe VOO ETF that way?

Thanks!

You can look up all the fees on the fidelity website, or vanguard, or google, etc. Or call fidelity. They’re incredibly easy to work with and speak English as a first language.

Is there a point where you should stop paying into your ROTH IRA, or does it always make sense to max it our no matter how much you make?

Roth accounts make the most sense for very low and very high earners. With low income, you are paying very little or zero tax so the money is basically tax-free going in and out. At some point as income increases, traditional IRAs become non-deductible so they are taxed BOTH going in and out, basically giving you a normal brokerage account. If you are over the traditional income limit a Roth becomes the most tax-efficient method for withdrawal. Eventually you will hit the Roth income limit in which case you will need to ‘backdoor’ to get the tax benefit. In general high earners should be maxing their Roth IRA even as their income grows.

Note that the above is in reference to IRAs. The calculus for 401(k) is a little bit different but there are proper strategies for those allocations as well.

TLDR: Most of the time it’s best to max out the Roth, however sometimes prioritizing the traditional may make more sense, but the criteria may be subjective.

its all just a guess on what future tax rates will be and what tax bucket you will be in in retirement. It is easier to pass along a ROTH to your heirs when you die though.