Theres a fairly new product for retirement mutual funds that target your date of retirement. Im not sold on the product. Im 49 years old. Over the last 10 years the Vanguard Index500 fund averaged a 10.49% annual return. The 2035 (retirement target date 13 years from now) retirement fund has averaged a 5.13% over the last 10 years. At age 49 I have $200,000 in retirement funds and for the next 13 years (to age 62) $12,000 per year is invested in the fund. (Assume all monies are invested at the beginning of the year.) Now we dont know what future returns will be but lets speculate they both will perform identically to past history. At age 62 (13 years from now) how much will I have in the Index500 fund? How much would I have in the 2035 target fund if I listened to an investment expert when I was 49 years old and move all monies invested into the retirement target fund? In dollars, how much was the financial mistake investing in the 2035 target fund?