What is a good mutual fund for a long run investor?

-$4500 to contribute yearly (Including what the employer offers)
-Young investor planning for retirement
-A medium amount of risk is acceptable

Know any good mutual funds that would work?

That may be dependent on your employers retirement plan, which is what it sound like you're being offered (4500 plus employer offer). So you will probably limited to mutual funds in your employers 401k plan, and I must say I'm 33 years old, and only worked for 2 different companies, but both had crappy 401k options. So check your companies offerings closely and research on finance.yahoo.com.

Now if this is not the case, I would still head out to finance.yahoo.com, in fact, start here, http://biz.yahoo.com/p/top.html. Click the market (small growth, large blend) and you'll see the top performers in that sector and their performance up to 5 years or more. That should give you a good idea of the yearly performance, look for 12% annual return or higher.

Now as far as sectors, with the price of oil continuing to rise, i'd go with precious metals or natural resources. I'd also look at pacific and south america too.

You can also try Exchange Traded Funds (ETF's). They're just like mutual funds only cheaper and easier to trade (do your research they are quite different from mutuals but that is the laymans comparison). You can search the same way for etf's at yahoo finance.

Good luck, at 4500+ a year should not take long for you to hit retirement

Mutual fund people hate me ......LOL.......because I give the facts on mutual funds.

About 75% of all mutual funds under perform the stock market. All of them have management fees, and some have sales loads.

May I suggest a DRIP plan if you are talking about investing for the long-term.

They are seldom talked about because brokers make very little money when they suggest them. Yet, they have proven to be one of the best, if not the best, long-term strategy on Wall Street.

The best part is you get solid annual returns from well-known, safe Blue Chip companies like: McDonalds, General Electric, Pfizer, Walmart, US Bancorp.......etc........

They are inexpensive to start and maintain, and the dividends are reinvested for free.

They are perfect for small investors, as well as big investors. They are safe and allow you to not care about whether the market is going up or down.

I would avoid mutual funds altogether. And more and more financial advisors who are not benefitting from the sales of mutual funds are saying the same.

ETF's are lower cost than mutual funds and DRIP plans are also much lower.

If you have to choose from mutual funds because it is a retirement account that limits your options, look closely at the funds 10 year return record, management fees, and if it has sales load.

If you have other options than mutual funds, I would strongly consider them.

Good Luck

Many mutual funds will work. Just need to find the right one. Mutual funds are great because you can get professional management for a small investment.
Personally, I like Vanguard or Fidelity for beginners.

FYI, check out www.moneyrec.com and ask your question, you will see there is a lot of information about many mutual funds and people that are novices and pros can help guide you.

Good question!.

Best of Luck,

Bunny