[jonesboheim]

Please dont misunderstand me - 401ks are GREAT. And you're a fool not to take at least as much as your employer will match. Its just that some of the investment options suck, quite frankly. The "targeted retirement" funds are very misleading and should be avoided at all costs. Over half of all mutual funds got beat by their respective indices last year so you're set if you can get the lowest expense ratio index fund you can find.

I have an S&P 500 index fund with a .09% expense ratio which is probably the best mutual fund value out there.

[SierraWasp]

Well, there's one thing about low expense ratio index funds... You'll never fall below that market index, but you'll never beat it either, right?