Question on Retirement Plans & Target Date Funds

[Benjamin Sulka]

Retirement plan question here: 

This question is not real estate related. It's related to retirement plans through your employer (if you're working full time). I just graduated college in May and started working full time in July. My current plan is a 403(b) plan. 

I did some exploration to see what my employer retirement plan is invested in. It's invested solely into target date funds which I've heard pros and cons about. 

The other options that I have to choose from a pretty limited and most are target date funds. However, there are some options to invest in the S&P 500 through index funds like VIIIX (Vanguard Institutional Index Fund) with a focus on tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, etc. Investing in companies like this is more of my inclination but I'm really not sure what to do here. 

Trying to see if anyone has knowledge about target date funds and whether it would make more sense to simply invest in the S&P 500. 

I also plan on opening a Roth IRA and investigating that further.

Thanks so much for any insight! 

-Ben, aspiring rental property owner and financial freedom seeker