Is it smart for me to invest in a mutual fund?

I don't know if I should put my money into a mutual fund.

If you don't want to learn about the stock market, then you are better off putting your money into a mutual fund.

If you want to learn a little bit about the stock market, the first thing to do is see what the best traders are buying and selling and why. This is the idea behind http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money. Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors. You can also read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas.

Here are this month's best traders:

http://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standin...

Good luck.

Put your money in a bank. Investing is like legal gambling.

Mutual funds are safe, almost guaranteed returns. They have averaged 12% over the last 70 years. I have some in my 401k which have been active since the 1930's. Another one since the 1950's. The second one has averaged 15% over the last 15 years.

Buy only funds that have at least a 5 year track record. Divide between 'growth', 'growth and income', 'aggressive growth', and 'international'.

Mutual funds are slow, boring, reliable growth for your money. Single stocks are like gambling in Vegas. Investing $25 a week from age 25 to age 65 will give you $4 million at retirement.

All these day traders and tycoon wannabes can tell you everything about a company and its stock except for one thing; where it's going. One lawsuit, bad PR, mismanagement, etc and your money is gone. Mutual funds eliminate that risk by investing in many companies at once.

There are many different kinds, they suggest the younger you are the more risk (agressive growth) you can take, but you can get domestic or foreign or market sector specific funds, tax deferred or municipal bond funds, just about anything, Morningstar is one outfit that rates the performance of all funds. If you think you can do better stockpicking on your own and want to watch the price go up and down every second of the day, go ahead, bonds are ok but don't offer the same return potential (or loss). Stay away from gold, it's sort of like in gold rush days, the people who got rich were the merchants selling the shovels.

Absolutely! Mutual funds will give you around 10-13% a year on your money. Just remember that a mutual fund is something that can go down. You have to be commited to the long haul. 20 years or more is what you are going to need. Talk to a financial advisor. I recomend Edward Jones, they are very easy to work with and are very one on one with you. Good luck and just remember, Warren Buffet started out with nothing, and now he is a multi billionaire.
Dean

Mutual fund is great for people who do not have the time and research to actively trade in the stock market. But if you do have the time and research, active trading maybe better.

One of my best friends is a financial adviser and sells mutual funds and it is a crapshoot. He will never tell you that.Not impressed with mutual funds.If you have some risk money consider gold for long term. There will be a time to get out. There is nothing wrong with taking a profit if things are going well.NO futures stuff unless you really know what you are doing. Stay inside the USA. No overseas investments or stock. Too risky. Take a look at a 25 year chart from the 1929 era. Take a look at a 25 year chart from 06....history repeats itself just like the markets. Still a little down travel and I do my best to always be positive and with a good attitude, but this is a reality check. Talk to a few banks, not just one. Good luck,be careful.

If you want to invest for a ten year period, select a five-star mutual fund for growth as your objective. Of course, you can invest for shorter periods of time, but I don't think you'll appreciate the value of investing until you have experienced it over a decade. Take a look at the past performance of some mutual funds... you'll see some at 10% or more for the average yearly return. Be advised, though, that past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

it depends on your age - if you ae still yound and workdiing mutual funds and stocks ae a good investment however if you are close to retirement mutual funds which include stocks and bonds are good and think about a CD for a guaranteed payback