I understand that target date fund should be providing a diversified, age-appropriate portfolio that gets more conservative over time. I naively assumed they would not get particularly conservative until 10-20 years pre-target-date.
Then I checked the actual performance: [https://totalrealreturns.com/n/VTTSX,VFIFX,VTI,VOO?start=2016-01-01](https://totalrealreturns.com/n/VTTSX,VFIFX,VTI,VOO?start=2016-01-01)
The 10-year returns for the 2060 fund is 201% versus 284% for VTI. That is a massive difference! 2060 is still more than 30 years out.
Is the target date fund more stable or safer? VTI has more green years. The returns for bad years are essentially the same (-35% and -37% in 2008; -17% and -20% in 2022).
How does this make sense?