Investing 101 For University Staff Pt. 1: Understanding Fidelity & TIAA

If you're a university employee with a Fidelity or TIAA retirement plan, you’ve probably had this experience: you enrolled, picked a few investment options with responsible-sounding names, and haven’t thought about it much since. That’s completely normal, but it doesn’t mean it’s working as well as it could be.

Understanding what’s actually inside your plan isn’t just for financial experts. It’s for anyone who wants to feel confident that their money is doing what they need it to do, now and for the future. The good news? You don’t need to master Wall Street to take charge of your retirement plan. Let’s start by pulling back the curtain on what’s really going on inside your university-sponsored account.

What’s Actually in Your Retirement Plan?

Your Fidelity or TIAA plan isn’t a single investment; it’s a collection of them. Each fund or option you chose (or were auto-enrolled in) is designed to behave a certain way in the market. But if you don’t know what those investments are, it’s hard to know if they fit your goals.

Most university retirement accounts are made up of the following:

• Mutual funds that invest in stocks, bonds, or a mix of both

• Target-date funds that gradually shift from aggressive to conservative as you approach retirement

• Annuities, especially in TIAA plans, which may offer fixed returns but have withdrawal rules

• Stable value or money market funds, which prioritize safety and stability over growth

If your investments were set and forgotten years ago, it’s worth checking to see whether they still make sense today.

Fidelity vs. TIAA: Different Strengths, Same Goal

Fidelity and TIAA both serve university plans, but they offer different types of investment options. This isn’t a competition, just a matter of understanding what tools are available to you.

Fidelity:

• Broad menu of mutual funds, including index funds and active strategies

• Target-date funds tailored to your expected retirement year

• More control over fund selection and allocation

TIAA:

• Fewer fund choices, but includes options like the TIAA Traditional Annuity

• Real estate accounts with direct property investments

• Emphasis on stability and guaranteed income features

  
  

If you’ve never explored your platform’s fund lineup, you might be surprised by the range of options and what they cost (more on that in Blog 3).

Why It Matters:

Most people don’t realize that the specific mix of investments in their retirement plan can significantly impact whether they meet their long-term goals. Even small differences in fund choices or risk levels can compound over decades into large gaps in retirement savings.

Here are some common misalignments we see:

• Choosing low-risk funds too early and missing out on long-term growth

• Staying in aggressive funds too long, increasing risk near retirement

• Thinking you’re diversified but actually holding very similar funds

  
  

Your plan might need just a few small adjustments to better align with your goals, but those adjustments start with understanding what you have.

How to Start Understanding Your Investments:

It’s easier than you think to start getting a handle on your current portfolio. This process doesn’t take long, and the insight is well worth the time.

Try this simple walkthrough

1. Log in to your Fidelity or TIAA account 

2. Review your investment list—note the names of the funds you’re in 

3. Click or search for each fund to find its description and details 

4. Pay attention to:

• Type of investment (stock, bond, annuity, etc.)

• Risk level and historical performance

• Expense ratio, which is the internal cost of the fund

  
  

You don’t need to make changes yet, just build awareness. You’ll already be ahead of most plan participants.

What’s Next:

In our next blog, we’ll help you take the next step: evaluating whether your current portfolio has the right balance of risk and return. This is where you start shaping your plan intentionally, based on your life stage and comfort with market swings.

If you want to go even deeper into the basics, download our free guide:  Investing 101 for University Employees. A plain-language intro to stocks, bonds, risk, and retirement planning, made just for higher ed professionals like you.

Download the DIY Guide