There is a belief in the broader personal finance community that investing for retirement is a complicated dance that only a few people are able to figure out. Accompanying this belief is the idea that it's better to pay more attention on your investments than less, and you need to know the details of technical and fundamental analysis to be successful with investing over the long term. 

Target-date funds encourage just the opposite. As the ultimate "set-it-and-forget-it" retirement option, the target-date fund is meant to be a simple and easy answer to the retirement planning question. You don't need to spend even one hour on this, and perhaps more importantly, you don't need any advanced knowledge of finance whatsoever. 

Target-date funds are designed as passive investment vehicles that require no ongoing management. You simply need to choose one that has a target date closely resembling your retirement date (i.e., 2045 or 2050) and let compound interest do the rest. 

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Source Fool.com