@msf noted these indexes and there are other "new" indexes Fidelity has introduced during the past few years..........these are managed by GEODE.

I agree with others about FBALX. it’s been the core holding in my IRA for about 20 years.

Interesting. I had opened a position in YACKX about 10 years ago for the reasons listed above, with the intention of moving more of my IRA into it as I approached retirement. However, Fidelity or Yacktman placed a hard close on the fund, preventing me from buying any more shares. So, I settled on PRBLX as a suitable replacement and it has far exceeded my expectations. I’m actually glad that YACKX closed because I’ve done better in PRBLX and their investment philosophy is more aligned with my preferences.

I'm usually a bit hesitant to consider two funds clones unless they have the same managers and their portfolios have very similar attributes and holdings. Puritan not only has just a single manager while Balanced has ten, Puritan's manager isn't even one of those ten.
While I agree that there is huge overlap between the portfolios, the mixtures are significantly different. Puritan has an average market cap of $112B, while Balanced's is a smaller $73B. Puritan is a growth-heavy fund (54% growth stocks), while Balanced is a bit more shall we say balanced, with 33% growth, 26% value. Puritan's turnover, at 132% is double that of Balanced's 60%, but that high turnover could just be the result of a new manager having overhauled the portfolio in the past 1.5 years.
On the other hand, management at Balanced turns over frequently enough that even if the two funds are clones today, Balanced will turn into something else tomorrow.
Consider FZIPX which is lauded in the column, and FSMAX. They both are extended market index funds. However, they follow different indexes and have different attributes. Good candidates for substitution, but not clones. In fact, because FZIPX has a cash component 26x as large as FSMAX's, its cash drag alone costs more than any savings that FZIPX offers with a zero ER.
So even index funds where management is much less of an issue may not be clones. And there's more to finding good funds than picking the ones with rock bottom costs. Which is what the author of this column seems to have done.

@stillers
I agree with your observation of FBALX....
Disclosure: A Fidelity customer for more than 40 years and biased to the favorable side of investing with them.

Great post, and ditto on your last comment.

FCPGX-Fidelity Small Cap Growth, About 2 years ago my investment advisor added it. I don't know specifically how it has performed except It's OK.

@stillers
I agree with your observation of FBALX. At .53% E.R. and a since inception (1986) annualized return of about 9.3%; well, if one is doing better than this, then stick with your plan. If one wants to retire from meddling with their portfolio; this fund, as well as whatever moderate allocation funds one has access to, may provide your managed account choice without the need of an advisor.
I read through the article, and perhaps some folks have or still do consider Fidelity to be pricey. If so, they have not done their homework and also do not understand or know the history of Fidelity and its positive impact upon the investing marketplace helping provide the diverse and inexpensive investments available to the small, individual investor today.
Fidelity, along with Vanguard and Schwab placed enormous pressure into the diversity and pricing of mutual funds, especially during the 1980's. Their actions then (forcing the high loads on mutual funds of companies as Merrill Lynch and the rest to have to re-do these fees or lose customers) and today; with their continued pricing and offerings pressures still to the benefit of the small, individual investor.
As to the choices in the article, well; as usual, everyone will make their appropriate choices.
Disclosure: A Fidelity customer for more than 40 years and biased to the favorable side of investing with them.

Crash - I’m not following you either. Why remove money from IRA accounts and pay taxes on it prematurely, if it’s not needed for five years? Couldn’t you just move the money to safer funds within your IRA? Or, alternatively, convert it to a safer fund in a Roth IRA?

https://www.businessinsider.com/retirement-saving-advice-2020-from-blackrock-bond-cio-rick-rieder-2019-12
BlackRock’s $1.7 trillion bond chief explains why it’s about to become much harder to save for retirement — and shares his best advice for doing it successfully
Safe, high-yielding investments are shrinking in availability at a time when retirement savers need them the most, according to Rick Rieder, the global chief investment officer of BlackRock’s $1.9 trillion fixed income business.
He estimates that 1.8 million people in the US will hit the retirement age of 65 every six months — double the pace from 20 years ago.

My task this year will be to start, in baby steps, to take T-IRA money and convert it into taxable accounts. I know I'm doing this prematurely, before RMDs must be taken, in 5 years' time. But when the time comes, my required RMDs will be not so big. A back-handed blessing. I'm tracking several funds that y'all suggested to me. Thanks.

Bobpa: "Any opinion on LALDX or HOBEX? Thank you for all your input." .
Bobpa, I owned LALDX for years through an employment retirement menu--I considered it a good, relatively low risk, fund, with a large AUM (likely due to its being marketed through company retirement plans). I think Lord Abbot is somewhat more aggressive in their asset management approach for this fund, compared to funds like DBLSX and DHEIX. I think it can be a good fund for ballast portfolio roles, and for a conservative bond oef investor, it looks like a very viable option.
Regarding HOBEX, it is a relatively new fund (about 3 years old), generally looks to be a High Risk/High Return fund for its category. Focuses heavily on Corporate bonds, and with a bit higher volatility than most of its peers. I don't like its very high Expense Ratio (1.81) and I don't care for a relatively steep peak to trough loss in 2018 for this category of funds. It would not fit my criteria for investing, but certainly has had a high return for its category in its 3 year existence. It is not a fund I follow, not a company I am familiar with, so I personally would be careful with what I know.

I second Gary1952, AKREX it’s an excellent fund.
I’ve been transitioning POGRX into AKREX for two years and am very happy that I did.
The risk/reward profile is far superior to primecap. It is a bit pricey though.

Thanks again. Sounds to me like a fund group in chaos. Hope they get it right. I have little there and it will be even less in a couple weeks. :)
In October I received a letter saying their Infrastructure fund OQGAX was dropping Australian based Macquarie as outside manager and would be serviced in-house. I sold all my shares shortly thereafter. I can’t recall any mention of closing the fund or merging into a different one. . Maybe it was hidden in some fine print. Curiously, Oppenheimer had opened that fund only about 2 years earlier, although it was essentially the same fund Macquarie had run on their own (with likely higher fees).

" For retirees who rely on their investments for retirement income, [the time at which one starts drawing on investments] is also one of the riskiest, if not the riskiest, time in an investor’s life."
If you agree with that (I do), then it must follow, as the night the day, that your later years of retirement are less risky times. Thus it makes sense that you invest most conservatively when you begin retirement, and more aggressively as you move through retirement. In part that is to make up for the very conservative portfolio you start with.
That's the point and conclusion of work by Pfau and Kitces on rising equity glidepaths in retirement. There have been many reports and refinements of that work. I offer just one link below for the basic idea.
https://www.onefpa.org/journal/Pages/Reducing Retirement Risk with a Rising Equity Glide Path.aspx

For those who are interested in investing in a Traditional IRA, that is where the majority of my investment assets are located. I try to use a bit more risky, and higher TR options than in my taxable account. However, I am very conservative, focused on preservation of principal, and using funds that will have a good chance at recouping my RMD distribution each year. In 2019, we had a very good market, and I was able to recoup my RMD, plus increase my overall IRA investment total by a healthy amount. I tend to use a large number of multisector bond oefs in my IRA. I have categorized multisector bond oefs that I follow in the following manner:
Conservative Multisector bond oefs: ANGIX is one of the more conservative lower risk multisector bond fund, and has been around for many years. VCFAX/VCFIX is probably my favorite fund, and has had a solid but shorter history than some other funds. IISIX/ISIAX is actually a nontraditional bond oef, but I consider it a very low risk multisector bond oef. I also include PIMIX/PONAX in this conservative category, have held it for many years, but it has become a bit more inconsistent in recent years, as it has had to branch out into more risky HY and EM bond categories, to help deal with huge AUM--it use to be a predominantly mortgage oriented fund with an emphasis on nonagency mortgages, but not so much anymore.
More risky but attractive multisector bond oefs: PUCZX is one of the more interesting funds, with a very attractive total return history--it use derivatives heavily and has a little higher SD than the more conservative bond oefs. JMSIX/JGIAX is also an interesting fund, highly recommended at Schwab because you can get the Institutional share class very cheaply--its performance history is a bit inconsistent, but it has been doing well this past year. JMUIX/JMUTX is also a very interesting fund, with a great TR history, and a very strong 2019--it has more appeal to me than PUCZX and JMSIX because it appears a bit less risky. PTIAX is a barbell type fund, focusing on longer term Munis and Nonagency mortgages--it has some inconsistency in my opinion, probably because of its barbell holdings. PTIAX pays a nice yield. IOFIX is a multisector bond fund, that is relatively new, and has phenomenal TR history, but it focuses primarily on one risky mortgage category, so I consider it more risky but very tempting.
Not sure what others are doing in this category, but I am "considering" stepping up my risk a little, but not considering any major changes in my overall very conservative holdings. I have this love/hate relationship with PIMIX, which I hold in a small portfolio percentage, and I am trying to determine whether I want to increase my investment in this fund, or possibly add a new fund I don't currently hold like JMUTX.

From the AAII Journal, January 2020. Written by Julie Jason.
"For those who are soon to retire or have recently retired, there is an inflection point between receiving a paycheck from an employer and a paycheck from your portfolio. For retirees who rely on their investments for retirement income, it is also one of the riskiest, if not the riskiest, time in an investor’s life. After all, you won’t go back to work for 45 years to recover from mistakes.
What type of financial service is best for the retiree who needs to “live off of” their investments?"
ARTICLE

https://www.newsmax.com/t/finance/article/947882?section=robertross&keywords=history-longest-bull-market&year=2019&month=12&date=31&id=947882&oref=www.google.com
Why History's Longest Bull Market Is Just Getting Started
'Doom and gloom predictions about the stock market drive click. I get it.
But those predictions have fallen flat for 10 years straight.
U.S. stocks keep marching higher, and history’s longest bull market keeps getting longer.
Here’s a chart of the S&P 500 since February 2009. It’s climbed 325%:'

In NYS your tax bracket won't be that much lower in retirement - the first dollar of taxable income is taxed at 4%, and it doesn't take much ($23K for couples) to see that go up to 5.25% or even 5.9% (at $28K).
Of course NYS doesn't tax SS, so let's say that you'll be saving around 2% on the difference in rates between now and when you retire. (NY recaptures the deduction by taxing the past contributions when you make nonqualified withdrawals. See IT-201 Line 22.)
Assuming that the excess contributions earn a cumulative return of at least 20% over the years, the 10% penalty on the earnings will more than wipe out any savings on the NYS side.
Beyond that, what you've got is essentially a non-deductible IRA. The money goes in post-tax (federal), the earnings are sheltered, and then taxed as ordinary income rather than cap gains/qualified divs when withdrawn.
Post-tax contributions can make sense if you're planning to invest in very tax-inefficient funds, like the 529 Income Portfolio. But if you're planning on investing in something more tax-efficient, I don't think that nondeductible contributions pay off.
Here's another way to ask the question: are there readers who would contribute to a nondeductible IRA if they could not convert it to a Roth? If this is not a winner, and if the 10% penalty consumes any benefit you get from the (temporary) NYS tax deduction, then there's not an obvious benefit in making the excess contributions.

PRNews for immediate Release...... there will be some sort of change in investment markets over the next 10 or 20 years...........end of text !

I've contributed to my grandkids 529 Education accounts for years, and there's probably more than will ever be used. Yet I still contribute to take advantage of NYS's $10K income tax deduction (6.57% marginal tax bracket). I know there's a 10% penalty on earnings for unqualified withdrawals. I figure I can leave the money in the accounts until after I've retired and in a lower tax bracket, but wonder if I should just stop funding and lose the deduction. Any comments?