Moving away from target date funds. Where should I put TSP and Fidelity money?

[RFAAOATB]

I've set up my main job pre tax accounts to S&P 500 Index funds due to their lower expenses and better growth potential than the target date offerings.

I also have money in the TSP which has small contributions due to my National Guard service.  They are going into the target date L2040 fund.  I want to move the current and future contributions to the S fund which has more than doubled over the past 8 years performing better than the C fund and L2040. 

My Roth IRA is with Fidelity in the Fidelity Freedom 2050 fund.  I'm having trouble navigating through the myriad of choices to find out which default option would be better to move it to, although just noticing that the expense is .78 suggests its time to make a choice to switch.  ISHARES NORTH AMERICAN NATURAL RESOURCES has a .48 expense ratio and is closely aligned but slightly higher than the market index with a natural resources bent.  Any other Fidelity choices you guys own or like?

Reasoning for moving away from target date funds include higher expenses and if part of the plan for early retirement is constant growth to access funds indefinitely, wouldn't we need the same level of aggressiveness in the market and not allocate to conservative as we get older?  I also want faster growth and would enjoy being a millionaire sooner and have the constitution to stay invested during any medium term downturns.

I also would prefer to keep my money in domestic stocks so the local economy is invested in.  I may be willing to look at international stocks if this reasoning is flawed, but for now I'm sticking with domestics.

[Frankies Girl]

If you're with Fidelity, their Spartan fund series are the ones that will match up with the Vanguard index funds.

And it's easy to recreate a target date fund blend using 2-3 of these funds. It just means you might want to check them once a year to see if you need to manually rebalance. There is a school of thought (which I agree with) that you don't need specific international funds if you're in the U.S. stock market, since many many companies that are U.S. based have international exposure.

And it is my understanding that as folks grow older, they are wanting a smoother ride instead of the short-term (1-5 years is considered short term) volatility that comes with being weighted heavy in the stocks, so that's when you start adding in bonds - to smooth out the yo-yo effect. But if your portfolio can weather short term drops, then staying a bit more weighted than usual as you age can mean a higher rate of return... but again, you have to be prepared to have some lean years in there if your portfolio itself is just "adequate" and not "robust."

https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/index-funds/why-fidelity

I have three funds:

FSTVX - total stock market index fund - 0.06% ER
FSITX - total bond market index fund - 0.17% ER
FSRVX - REIT index fund - 0.19% ER (this is not really necessary if you want a simple stock/bond portfolio)

[catccc]

I recently posted a topic about moving from Vanguard 2045 Target (0.18% ER) to Fidelity, due to an employment change.  You can go back to the original thread and see if there is anything helpful there.  I felt I got a lot of good advice.  As a convenience, here's what I ended up doing as part of a 90/10 stocks/bond portfolio:

Okay, I went with:
65% Spartan Total Market Index Fund (0.06% expense)
17% Spartan Extended Market Index Fund (0.07%)
 8% Fidelity Diversified International Fund (0.95%)
10% Fidelity Intermediate Bond Fund (0.45%)

I think the blended expense ratio is around 0.17%, essentially in line with the Vanguard 2045 fund.  Thanks all for the advice and breaking down the decision for me.  This was much easier to decide with your assistance!

[Nords]

I also want faster growth and would enjoy being a millionaire sooner and have the constitution to stay invested during any medium term downturns.

Everybody says that until the next downturn.  I've been investing for over 30 years and I keep finding the next downturn to be at least as painful as the last.

I won't try to talk anyone out of it, but hopefully you've experienced a "medium term" downturn (whatever that is) or have put your investments in autopilot so that you're not tempted to mess with the plan.  Hopefully both.

[Ftao93]

https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/index-funds/why-fidelity

I have three funds:

FSTVX - total stock market index fund - 0.06% ER
FSITX - total bond market index fund - 0.17% ER
FSRVX - REIT index fund - 0.19% ER (this is not really necessary if you want a simple stock/bond portfolio)

I looked at doing these funds with my 401k.  However they aren't offered.  The ratio still works out to 90/10, but the target funds have a .4% higher expense ratio, so I was hoping to change.

Oh well, there's not that much in there yet.  I will pester them more toward year end and see if I can manually do it.

[Tyler]

Everybody says that until the next downturn.  I've been investing for over 30 years and I keep finding the next downturn to be at least as painful as the last.

I won't try to talk anyone out of it, but hopefully you've experienced a "medium term" downturn (whatever that is) or have put your investments in autopilot so that you're not tempted to mess with the plan.  Hopefully both.

+1