How should I invest my money? What mutual funds are good?

I have about $50,000 I want to invest (or some portion of it). What mutual funds are good? I don't want to lose it, because I want to go to law school in a few years and want to buy a house.

wow talk about bad advice on here.

anyway Mutual Funds are fine IF you choose the right one. http://www.morningstar.com has the best research for mutual funds that I have ever seen. The key is low expenses and no loads. Persoanlly if you can stomach wild swings ETF's are a good safe bet as well (again you have to choose the right ones).

With 50k and this market which will be very unstable until at least Wedensday, take at least 10K and put it in an online saving bank I use ING but there are others that have higher apy's.

Like any investment you can lose money which brings me to step two in this market put in SMALL amounts or a Dollar Coast Averaging tactict will work here. There is only one ETF I will buy for sure today (monday) and If i go into others it will be in small increments to take advantage of this market decline.

As for what is good. Dodge Cox, American Capital (I own CWGFX), Buffalo mid cap and small are highly rated and some T Rowe Prices have some winners as well.

Be smart and stay away from Futures and Penny Garbage.

Invest wisely and Beware of Investment Scam.
http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/cyberfr...

Mutual funds, unlike individual stocks, are fairly simple to pick. Look at their track record. Find one that has a good solid record for at least 10 years. The longer the better.

Of course, some are more aggressive than others, so if you are only considering investing for a few short years you should probably pick a more conservative fund.

Fees: There are PLENTY of GOOD funds that don't charge ANY fees!

First consider getting an account with an online broker so you can purchase mutual funds, stocks, etc. I recommend Scottrade-low transaction costs, no minumum, no inactivity fees. Don't recommend active stock trading unless you know what you're doing and have alot of time on your hands

Mutual funds are a good way to own a variey of stocks vs. individual stocks that require more attention and carry more risk. Look at no load funds, they don;t have front load fee when you buy, back end load when you liquidate, and historically no loads also perform better than loaded high funds.

Also, 80% of managed funds (stocks are picked by a fund manager or team) actually underperform index funds. Index funds that track the S&P 500 are a good way to invest, and have little fees because don;t require active management.

Safe place to put money but less return is direct deposit savings account like ING orange, HSBC, or Emigrant. All online banks with around 5% APR return. Very safe and convenient to access your cash and requires no attention. This is where folks put there money while saving for a down payment on a house or tuition for professional school like in your case. 5% beats the heck out of regular bank savings accounts or CDs where your money is tied up and return poor.

Recommend you: put $25,000 in an ING orange direct deposit savings account for guaranteed return and FDIC security-peace of mind.

The other half split between 2 mutual funds. Recommend a growth fund/or S&P index fund and the other half in an international (Asia ex-Japan) fund.

Don't put all your money into one mutual fund and don't just put it there and check on it in a few years thinking it must be growing. Mutual funds are still like individual stocks in that you should diversify a little and they can perform poorly over time.

Check out morningstar.com the official rating service for mutual funds and get a Scottrade account and it has great free research as well. Also, just learn all you can from investopedia.com, wsj.com, kiplinger.com, fool.com of motley fool fame.

And remember the old saying historical performance doesn't reflect future potential. So the track record especially recent isn't always helpful. So funds with great 1-3 year performance can tank after you buy into it. Look at the 5 or 10 year performance and see if it outperform funds in its class and the S&P 500. If so, this means that fund did well in good (bull) and bear markets.

Good luck investing and with law school!

If your time horizon isnt atleast ten years I wouldnt put it in a mutual fund. I would put it in CD's. of no longer than one year maturity.

Having said that, once you are able to invest in mutual funds, the most important thing to consider is fees. Over the long term they can take a good bite out of your returns. Combine low fees with a good long term return in a fund that suits your risk tolerence.

mutual funds are for kids.
invest in futures!

Yahoo Finance is a pretty good reseach tool (I have a Smith Barney account as well, but Yahoo may be better.) and I really like Kiplingers magazine. It ranks top ten categorical mutual funds every month, but I have yet to decide if it is biased or not. Regardless, It gives a lot of good tips every month on varied stuff.
As my broker told me, It's time to buy - everything is on sale right now in the market! Stock prices are all over the place, so unless you want to keep your $50K in there a long time, you may want to choose one that is pretty conservative these days so you see a positive return on your money in a few years.

Since you plan to use the money in the near future, you should invest in safe, short term investments. Money market funds, Treasury bills and bank or credit union CDs would be appropriate. Don't risk your law school education or your house in the stock market. With all the problems in the mortgage and debt markets, who knows where the stock market is headed? For more on short term investments, see the webpage listed below.

Low Risk High Returns. Legitimate business. Up to 20-70% returns per annum. Fully secured by insurance.

Interested please email me at francescovicente@gmail.com

Dodge & Cox is a good Large Cap Growth & Income fund....if you can find a company that has access to it since it is a closed fund (not taking new investors). they had a 7.23% return for the first half of '07 and 19.74% return for the last 12 months. even when it is a down market Dodge & Cox will lose but not as much as the other funds.

If you don't want to lose then do not invest in Mutual Funds.

Probably makes sense to build a balanced portfolio and slowly ease into the market given the volatility in the market. The worst thing is to bail out when the market takes sharp turn, so you want to make sure you can stay for the long run. Another key thing is to find funds that really outperform its peer. 80% of active managed fund can't beat index, but 20% that does really worth the money to invest with the best manager. A fund may not always outperform the market, that's why you need a mix, but a great fund should always outperform its peer. Check out a site called fundmojo and looks at various stats on a fund before investing. Here is the web site: http://www.fundmojo.com. You can also see various top magazine recommendations and other people's portfolio on fundmojo as well.