Which are the best mutual funds?

which r the best funds for investments?

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to that question. Even the basics of investing takes some effort to learn (despite the claims of various self-help authors), but hopefully my answer can help you get started.

Firstly, what you have to ask yourself is how much risk you are willing to take on and whether you are investing for next year or for retirement. A general guideline is that the sooner you need your money, the less risk you should take on. This is because if you need your money soon and the market has turned down, you will have to realize a loss. On the other hand, if you are investing for retirement (and it is still far away) you might be able to afford to weather the ups and downs. Assuming that your time horizon is shorter than 20 years and that you only want to invest in one mutual fund, you will probably want to invest in one with a percentage of stocks (risky) and bonds (generally safer). Keep in mind that lower risk generally also means lower potential return, there is no free lunch in investing.

Secondly, you will need to look at costs and compare. Statistics on fund performance over long stretches of time show that costs are very important for your total return on your investment.

Thirdly, you should learn about what a mutual fund is for example from the tutorials at Morningstar.com and with that knowledge, take a look at the information you can find on the fund's website.

Good luck researching and investing.

It depends on your total portfolio and risk tolerance. Look at the loads and fees avoid loads and keep fees low. Index funds usually have low fees and some are no load. People say Vanguard and Fidelity but I haven't looked at their index funds.

To paraphrase Will Rogers, only buy funds that will go up. If the fund goes down, don't buy it.

There is no stock answer for this. There are many mutual and investment funds that are reliable, but they all have their ups and downs. If you want to invest in one, just pick a reputable one and be prepared to ride out the rises and falls.