If you’re building or adjusting a buy-and-hold retirement portfolio, you certainly don’t need to stay faithful to any single fund provider—different mutual fund companies do some things better than others, after all.
But if you felt compelled to keep your investments within a sole fund family, you could very easily wrap yourself up in some of the best Fidelity retirement funds and meet every one of your needs.
Fidelity has been a leader in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), covering virtually every asset class for decades. It currently boasts nearly 50 million individual investors holding $15 trillion in assets—scale that allows it to both add new products over time and keep lowering its already low costs. And the best Fidelity retirement funds can go toe to toe with virtually any other major mutual fund company in terms of price and breadth of offerings.
Let’s take a look at how Fidelity funds can be used to best position your retirement portfolio. I’ll explore some of the best Fidelity mutual funds for retirement, and provide answers to some common related retirement investing questions.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. These securities appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.
Editor’s Note: The tabular data presented in this article is up-to-date as of Feb. 12, 2025.
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Table of Contents
What Should You Want in a Retirement Fund?
When you’re ready to invest your retirement savings, you need to consider a few critical points.
— Assets: First and foremost, a diversified portfolio should include every major asset class. That’s easy to do with Fidelity mutual funds, as the company offers competitive stock funds and bond funds that are available at most major brokerage houses.
— Fees: Equally significant are the associated costs. Each dollar paid in fees and expenses is a dollar no longer available to compound your wealth.
— Income: Lastly, an ideal retirement portfolio should aim to generate consistent income. While equity funds can be subject to periodic downturns and bear markets, a bond fund focused on income can provide for your living expenses without requiring you to sell assets at what might be an inopportune time. A well-constructed retirement portfolio should include both growth and income strategies.
Fidelity is a popular choice among employers as a custodian for 401(k) plans for the very same reasons. If you’re looking for low fees and broad exposure to every major asset class, Fidelity will generally be a solid option.
Why Fidelity Mutual Funds?
Fidelity is a leader in mutual funds (and ETFs, for that matter) and has been a force in the industry since the launch of its Fidelity Puritan Fund (FPURX) back in 1947.
Today, this premier mutual fund company has more than $12 trillion in assets under administration thanks to many successes over the intervening years. That includes star money managers such as Peter Lynch, the long-time manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund (FMAGX) who averaged an incredible 29.2% per year between 1977 and 1990.
However, while Fidelity first built its name on actively managed funds, over the past three decades, the firm has built out its low-cost and even no-cost index funds as part of the movement to reduce expense ratios and transaction costs for individual investors.
The Top Retirement Funds Available From Fidelity for 2025
So, with all of that as an introduction, let’s choose some of the very best Fidelity retirement funds to round out a portfolio.
Any or all of these mutual funds should be equally appropriate for a tax-deferred retirement plan like an IRA or 401(k) plan, or a regular, good old-fashioned brokerage account.
1. Fidelity 500 Index Fund
— Style: U.S. large-cap stock
— Management: Index
— Assets under management: $638.8 billion
— Dividend yield: 1.2%
— Expense ratio: 0.015%, or 15¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
It’s difficult to beat the S&P 500 for building long-term wealth. Actively managed mutual funds that can consistently beat the S&P 500 over time are rare, particularly after considering fees and expenses.
Related: The 10 Best Fidelity Funds You Can Own
Thus, when constructing a long-term retirement portfolio, an investment in a simple S&P 500 Index fund like the Fidelity 500 Index Fund (FXAIX) is one of the absolute smartest moves you can make. FXAIX simply “tracks” the S&P 500, meaning it holds shares of the index’s 500 component companies at the same percentage they’re “weighted” in the index.
If you believe in the American growth story, then buying a basket of America’s biggest and most recognized companies makes sense. Even Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha himself—considered by many to be the greatest investor in history—has said on multiple occasions that most investors, most of the time, should simply buy and hold an S&P 500 index fund and let it run.
The Fidelity 500 Index Fund has an almost nonexistent expense ratio of just 0.015%, which is just about impossible to beat. That has helped it draw an incredible $630 billion-plus in assets under management.
Turnover in S&P 500 index funds is typically low, at just a couple percent in any given year. That makes these products an extraordinarily tax-efficient way to invest, as they generate very little in taxable capital gains. So, if you find yourself with limited IRA or 401(k) funds available to invest, it makes sense to allocate your taxable dollars to a fund like FXAIX.
Related: The 7 Best Mutual Funds for Beginners
2. Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund
— Style: U.S. large-cap stock
— Management: Index
— Assets under management: $26.5 billion
— Dividend yield: 1.1%
— Expense ratio: N/A
— Minimum initial investment: None
There are low costs, and then there are low costs. Fidelity’s ZERO line of mutual funds, which charge quite literally nothing in annual fees, are firmly in the latter camp.
Related: Beginner’s Guide to Fidelity Target-Date Funds
The Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund (FZROX) does provide slightly different exposure than Fidelity 500. With FZROX, you gain access to the entire universe of U.S. stocks by tracking the Fidelity U.S. Total Investable Market Index, a float-adjusted market cap-weighted index designed to reflect the performance of the full U.S. equity market (including large-, mid-, and small-cap stocks).
To keep costs down, the mutual fund uses statistical sampling techniques to replicate the returns of the index without having to own every underlying stock. Still, this Fidelity fund currently holds nearly 2,600 stocks, making it exceptionally well diversified.
Related: 7 Best Fidelity ETFs for 2025 [Invest Tactically]
Practically speaking, there is not much difference between an expense ratio of 0.015% and zero. That extra 15¢ per year per $1,000 invested isn’t going to make a material difference over an investing lifespan. But it’s also not nothing. So if paying the absolute minimum in fees is philosophically important to you, these ZERO products—which cover a few core portfolio needs—could absolutely be treated as Fidelity retirement funds.
Related: The 7 Best Fidelity Index Funds for Beginners
However, to invest in FZROX, or any other Fidelity ZERO fund, you have to have a Fidelity brokerage account. If you don’t have a Fidelity brokerage account but want comparable exposure, the Fidelity Total Market Index Fund (FSKAX) charges a barely noticeable 0.015% in annual expenses and requires zero minimum initial investment.
Do you want to get serious about saving and planning for retirement? Sign up for Retire With Riley, Young and the Invested’s free retirement planning newsletter.
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3. Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index Fund
— Style: U.S. large-cap growth stock
— Management: Index
— Assets under management: $19.3 billion
— Dividend yield: 0.6%
— Expense ratio: 0.29%, or $2.90 per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
When you visit a financial website or look at a business channel chyron, you’ll typically see data for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average prominently displayed. That’s because when the average person asks “how did the stock market do today?” they’re typically asking about one of these two benchmarks of American stock market performance.
They’re probably not asking about the Nasdaq Composite Index, and yet it too holds a place of prominence right alongside those other two venerable market indexes. This market cap-weighted index is made up of all the roughly 3,700 stocks that are listed on the Nasdaq Composite, which serves alongside the New York Stock Exchange as the world’s two largest stock exchanges by market capitalization.
Related: 5 Best Vanguard Dividend Funds [Low-Cost Income]
But it’s best known not as a broad market index, but as a proxy of the tech sector.
That makes the Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index Fund (FNCMX) particularly interesting as a Fidelity retirement fund for anyone who wants to be more aggressive with the equity portion of their portfolio.
FNCMX holds 2,800 Nasdaq Composite stocks—not the index’s full roster, but a representative amount accounting for the vast majority of the index’s market cap. As I write this, roughly half of the fund’s assets are invested in the technology sector, and another quarter or so are in tech-related sectors and stocks. And while tech and tech-esque overweight is actually quite normal among large-cap growth funds, Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index is even more concentrated in those holdings than competitor funds.
That said, while FNCMX is an aggressive fund, it’s not a trading hive. Turnover is actually very modest, at just 10%. That makes this Fidelity fund fairly tax-efficient, and thus perfectly appropriate for taxable accounts.
Related: The 10 Best Index Funds You Can Buy
4. Fidelity Contrafund
— Style: U.S. large-cap growth
— Management: Active
— Assets under management: $161.0 billion
— Dividend yield: 0.1%
— Expense ratio: 0.39%, or $3.90 per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
If you are new to investing in equity mutual funds, you are in good hands with Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) manager Will Danoff. He’s one of the most successful equity fund managers in history and has been running FCNTX for three decades, helping to build it into one of the largest mutual funds in the world.
Contrafund has a simple mandate: capital appreciation (in other words, price gains). And the fund is anything if not flexible. It can pursue value stocks, growth stocks, or any combination of the two.
Given Contrafund’s size, it generally has to concentrate in large-cap stocks. Its biggest holding is Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META), which makes up almost 15% of its portfolio. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Nvidia (NVDA), and Amazon (AMZN) are also large positions at between 6% and 9% each.
Related: The Best REITs to Invest In for 2025
In most years, Contrafund’s returns won’t deviate all that much from the S&P 500’s returns, and over the past decade, the fund’s annualized returns have been almost identical to the S&P 500. But in 2000, 2001 and 2002—a bear market that, similar to our most recent one, centered around technology and growth stocks—the S&P was down 9.0%, 11.9%, and 22.0%, respectively. Contrafund lost a good deal less over that three-year stretch at 6.8%, 12.6%, and 9.6%, respectively.
The fund struggled in 2022, but then, in a bear market, virtually all equity funds take damage. It’s the price we pay for getting access to the upside of a bull market. Remember: A skilled manager can really earn their keep during difficult markets by minimizing those losses while still positioning the portfolio to benefit when the market comes roaring back; indeed, Danoff managed to beat his category average in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Most importantly: Danoff has managed to beat the category average across every meaningful time period and is among the top quarter of similar funds across all meaningful time frames. So while FCNTX isn’t extremely tax-inefficient—turnover is about 16%—it still makes sense to hold in a tax-advantaged account if you’re looking for sheer performance.
Related: The 9 Best ETFs for Beginners for 2025
5. Fidelity International Index Fund
— Style: International large-cap stock
— Management: Index
— Assets under management: $54.2 billion
— Dividend yield: 3.1%
— Expense ratio: 0.035%, or 35¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
The United States is the world’s leading innovation hub as well as its largest economy. And if you are an American and your expenses are in dollars, it only makes sense to keep the bulk of your wealth in U.S. stock and bond funds.
Related: 10 Best Vanguard Funds for the Everyday Investor
Still, there are thousands of quality companies in developed markets like Europe, Canada, Australia, or wealthier Asian markets like Japan or South Korea, and in emerging markets (less stable but faster-growing) like China and India. And while U.S. stocks have led the world over the past decade, there are long stretches when international stocks outperform, such as the 2000-08 period most recently.
If you’re looking for broad exposure to international stocks, a very solid option is the Fidelity International Index Fund (FSPSX). This Fidelity mutual fund holds a portfolio of roughly 750 international stocks, including household names like Switzerland’s Nestlé (NSRGY), Japan’s Toyota (TM), and Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk (NVO). Also worth noting is that international blue chips tend to pay larger dividends than their American brethren; that’s plain to see in FSPSX, whose 3%-plus dividend yield is far more than what investors are getting out of the S&P 500.
The fund is a one-stop shop for exposure to international stocks, and with an expense ratio of just 0.035%, it’s virtually free to own.
Related: 6 Best Stock Recommendation Services [Stock Tips + Picks]
6. Fidelity Investment Grade Bond Fund
— Style: U.S. intermediate-term core bond
— Management: Active
— SEC yield: 4.7%*
— Assets under management: $10.3 billion
— Expense ratio: 0.44%, or $4.40 per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
Most investors need some exposure to bonds, which is debt that’s issued by governments, companies, and other entities. Their interest payments and relative lack of volatility make them an excellent tool for providing a portfolio with stability and income.
Individual bonds can be a hassle, however. Data and research on individual issues is much thinner than it is for publicly traded stocks. And some bonds have minimum investments in the tens of thousands of dollars. But you can blunt these problems by purchasing a bond fund, which allows you to invest in hundreds or even thousands of bonds with a single click—and, in many cases, very low fees.
Related: Best Fidelity Retirement Funds to Hold in an IRA
That makes core bond funds like the Fidelity Investment Grade Bond Fund (FBNDX) attractive buy-and-hold products for retirement planners who, when it comes to their debt exposure, want to hand the reins over to skilled managers. And now that the yield curve has normalized, investors looking for fixed income are once again being rewarded for buying bonds a little longer in maturity.
FBNDX’s five co-managers have built a portfolio of more than 4,400 investment-grade securities spanning numerous debt types, including U.S. Treasuries, corporate bonds, pass-through mortgage-backed securities (MBSes), commercial MBSes, asset-backed securities (ABSes), and other debt. The portfolio’s bond maturities range between just a few months and 20 years, though the biggest allocation is to intermediate-term bonds of five to 10 years until maturity.
Related: Best Fidelity Retirement Funds to Hold in a 401(k) Plan
Duration—a measure of interest-rate sensitivity—is 6.2 years. In theory, this means if interest rates were to rise by 1 percentage point, the portfolio should experience a short-term capital loss of about 6.2%. Likewise, a 1-percentage-point fall in interest rates would result in a 6.2% increase in short-term capital gains.
Long story short: Fund shareholders are instantly plugged into a widely diversified and well-selected set of fixed-income assets, which generate a decent stream of income, and at a very reasonable cost. This makes FBNDX one of the best Fidelity retirement funds to buy.
Related: The 7 Best Fidelity ETFs for 2025 [Invest Tactically]
* SEC yield reflects the interest earned across the most recent 30-day period. This is a standard measure for funds holding bonds and preferred stocks.
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7. Fidelity Short-Term Bond Index Fund
— Style: U.S. short-term bond
— Management: Index
— Assets under management: $3.1 billion
— SEC yield: 4.5%
— Expense ratio: 0.03%, or 30¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
The yield curve was recently inverted, which meant short-term bond rates were higher than riskier long-term bond rates—making short-term bonds a no-brainer buy. As mentioned above, the curve has still inverted, but there’s still a place for short-term bond funds such as the Fidelity Short-Term Bond Index Fund (FNSOX).
Related: 5 Best Money Market Funds [Protect Your Savings]
FNSOX tracks the performance of the Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Government/Credit Bond Index, a market value-weighted index of fixed-rate investment-grade debt securities with maturities from one to five years, including U.S. Treasuries, other U.S. government-related debt, and corporate debt.
These are high-quality bonds with little in the way of credit risk. And because the bonds are short-term in nature, they have very little sensitivity to changes in market interest rates. FNSOX’s bond portfolio has a weighted average maturity of just 2.8 years and a duration of just 2.5 years.
Related: The 7 Best Dividend ETFs [Get Income + Diversify]
There might come a day when short-term bond funds are no longer particularly attractive. But for now, a 4%-plus yield is attractive and comes with very little risk. Thus, FNSOX remains one of the very best Fidelity retirement funds you can buy.
Do you want to get serious about saving and planning for retirement? Sign up for Retire With Riley, Young and the Invested’s free retirement planning newsletter.
8. Fidelity Real Estate Income Fund
— Style: Sector (Real estate)
— Management: Active
— Assets under management: $4.9 billion
— Dividend yield: 4.6%
— Expense ratio: 0.67%, or $6.70 per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
Real estate has been a preferred asset class since the dawn of human civilization. And today, real estate investment trusts (REITs) offer the potential for both high yield and respectable capital gains.
REITs enjoy a special tax status that allows them to avoid corporate taxation so long as they distribute at least 90% of their net profits as dividends. Because of this tax incentive, REITs tend to be one of the highest-yielding sectors and a perennial favorite among income investors.
Related: The 7 Best REITs to Invest In for 2025
Unfortunately, this also makes REITs very tax-inefficient, as a large percentage of the total return comes from taxable dividends. What’s more, REIT dividends are generally not classified as “qualified dividends.” Qualified dividends are taxed at the long-term capital gains rate (0%, 15% or 20% depending on your tax bracket). Non-qualified dividends are taxed as ordinary income, like bond interest, and can face rates as high as 37%, depending on your bracket. Thus, it makes more sense to hold REITs and REIT funds in a tax-advantaged plan like a 401(k) rather than a taxable brokerage account.
If you’re looking for a good contender, the Fidelity Real Estate Income Fund (FRIFX) is a solid option. The fund holds a collection of common stock of U.S. REITs such as manufactured-home specialist Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), data-center REIT Equinix (EQIX), and logistics real estate leader Prologis (PLD); debt securities of real estate entities; and commercial and other mortgage-backed securities.
FRIFX currently yields nearly 5%, making it a very competitive income option—even in a high-yield environment like today.
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9. Fidelity Freedom Funds
— Style: Target-date
— Management: Active or index, depending on Freedom series
— Expense ratio: 0.12%-0.75%, or $1.20-$7.50 per year for every $1,000 invested
— Minimum initial investment: None
One of the issues in building an appropriate allocation allocation is that your ideal mix of stock and bond funds will evolve over time based on your age and stage of life. An ideal portfolio for a 20-year-old is likely going to be very different from that of a 40-year-old, and both those portfolios will be different from what’s ideal for a 60-year-old.
This is where a target date fund can really be a lifesaver. A target-date fund—also called a life-cycle fund—is a type of mutual fund that is designed to change its asset allocation over time.
Related: Beginner’s Guide to Vanguard Target-Date Funds
The typical target-date fund is an actively managed fund—one that will start out with a heavy allocation to stocks and then slowly transition to a heavier allocation to bonds as it approaches its target retirement date, following a glide path.
The target retirement date is intended to be a rough estimate and doesn’t need to be precise. You’re generally not going to know the precise year you plan to retire decades in advance. Fidelity, like most mutual fund families, creates its target-date funds in five-year increments of target retirement date (say, 2025, 2030, 2035, etc.).
Related: Beginner’s Guide to Schwab Target-Date Funds
Fidelity mutual funds have excellent reputations for their low costs and breadth of offerings, and Fidelity’s target-date fund families—the Fidelity Freedom Funds—continue that legacy. These Fidelity target-date funds hold portfolios of mostly Fidelity stock and bond mutual funds, they’re cheap, and they have no required minimum investment. They’re among the best suites of life-cycle funds you can buy, and you can read more about them in our primer on Fidelity target-date funds.
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What Are Fidelity ZERO Funds?
Fidelity ZERO Funds are a line of zero-minimum, zero-expense index funds launched by Fidelity in 2018. Currently, there are four Fidelity ZERO funds:
— Fidelity Zero International Index Fund (FZILX)
— Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund (FZROX)
— Fidelity Zero Extended Market Index (FZIPX)
— Fidelity Zero Large Cap Index Fund (FNILX)
The ZERO funds are true to their name: Investors literally pay nothing in management fees. But there are conditions. The Fidelity ZERO funds are only available in Fidelity brokerage accounts. That might not be a problem, as Fidelity brokerage accounts are generally well regarded and competitive with the other major online brokers. But if you do not already have a Fidelity account, you’d need to open one.
Fidelity ZERO Funds are, strictly speaking, index funds. But they are based on customized indexes that Fidelity has created in-house. The typical large-cap index fund tracks the S&P 500 or another recognized index, but they have to pay licensing fees to the index creator. Fidelity avoids the licensing fees by creating their own indexes, which allows them to pay the savings on in the form of zero fees.
The Fidelity indexes tend to be very similar to popular indexes such as the S&P 500, but they are not the same. So, if tracking a specific index is a priority for you, you should take that under advisement.
What is the Minimum Investment Amount on a Fidelity Fund?
Every Fidelity fund has its own minimum investment amount specific to that fund. But Fidelity has been a trailblazer in making its funds available to beginning investors with ultra-low minimums, and many Fidelity funds have no minimum investment at all.
Part of our criteria in selecting the best Fidelity index funds was accessibility, and every fund selected here has a minimum investment of zero, meaning you can literally start your investment with any dollar amount.
Why Does a Fund’s Expense Ratio Matter So Much?
Every dollar you pay in expenses is a dollar that comes directly out of your returns. So, it is absolutely in your best interests to keep your expense ratios to an absolute minimum.
The expense ratio is the percentage of your investment lost each year to management fees, trading expenses and other fund expenses. Because index funds are passively managed and don’t have large staffs of portfolio managers and analysts to pay, they tend to have some of the lowest expense ratios of all mutual funds.
This matters because every dollar not lost to expenses is a dollar that is available to grow and compound. And over an investing lifetime, even a half a percent can have a huge impact. If you invest just $1,000 in a fund generating 5% per year after fees, over a 30-year horizon, it will grow to $4,116. However, if you invested $1,000 in the same fund, but it had an additional 50 basis points in fees (so it only generated 4.5% per year in returns), it would grow to only $3,584 over the same period.
Related: 13 Best Long-Term Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever
As even novice investors probably know, funds—whether they’re mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs)—are the simplest and easiest ways to invest in the stock market. But the best long-term stocks also offer many investors a way to stay “invested” intellectually—by following companies they believe in. They also provide investors with the potential for outperformance.
So if you’re looking for a starting point for your own portfolio, look no further. Check out our list of the best long-term stocks for buy-and-hold investors.
Related: 10 Best Monthly Dividend Stocks for Frequent, Regular Income
The vast majority of American dividend stocks pay regular, reliable payouts—and they do so at a more frequent clip (quarterly) than dividend stocks in most other countries (typically every six months or year).
Still, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “it’d sure be nice to collect these dividends more often,” you don’t have to look far. While they’re not terribly common, American exchanges boast dozens of monthly dividend stocks.
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