Kris, I'm with erryl on lifecycle funds; the alternatives are better.

But I'd also suggest you be VERY cautious about TIAA/CREF.  I started with them in 1970 when I was a chief resident.  I'm still extracting myself (my TIAA money has to be withdrawn over 10 years).  Over the past 20 years I have had many major problems with them around transfers and withdrawals including being told recently that there was "no money" in a contract which had a balance of over 40K.  They have very old fashioned information systems and many retirees, like me, have had trouble, sometimes severe, in obtaining funds when needed (and promised) getting taxes straight, etc. I'm now set with my withdrawals and so don't follow them very closely; things may have improved in the past 18 months.  One publication that had some good commentary was eWeek: www.eweek.com.  And you can certainly ask the folks on the TIAA/CREF forum about it although some of them are very protective of the organization.

I don't understand why this isn't more widely known!  It's sad; they took good care of my money at a low cost when I knew nothing and I would have liked to stay with them.

I ended up at Fidelity because in the early '80s I had a job where I could add some voluntary contributions to FIDO through a 403(b); I was very impressed, and still am, by the simplicity and clarity of the FIDO site and by the help I've always had from their customer service reps. Also I found very quickly that I could do better in specialized FIDO funds than I was doing at CREF.

Just one opinion--but a strongly held one; you can see a lot of this if you google TIAA/CREF problems.

DrH