Mutual Fund Advice

[ANDR01D]

I want to start investing my money. I don't have much (I'm comfortable investing about $1000), but I figure if nothing else it will help me gain some invaluable knowledge. From what I've read, pretty much the only way to go with the small amount of capital I have is mutual funds as they typically offer low minimums and are moderately diversified. I'm not looking to get rich quick, I want to build this money at a stable rate where I can easily reinvest the profits.

I know some of you NSers have a decent amount of experience investing, so I want some advice on which mutual fund to go with. I'm looking for one where $1000 meets the minimum and I'm not going to get totally hammered with management fees. With all my details in mind, what would you recommend? Even if it's a link to a website that will teach me more or allow me to compare mutual funds, I would be stoked.

inb4 Summer NS destroys all hope for an intelligent conversation about investing.

 

[corona]

I invested with this guy who emailed me saying he was a prince from Nigeria. He was sick of people constantly turning him down so he's given me almost 3 times my original investment only 4 years later.

 

[mikeystark]

If you are looking into minimizing tax consequences you may want to look into an ETF instead of a mutual fund. They are almost the same except ETF's are traded like a stock on an exchange. ETF's also disclose their holdings daily unlike Mutual Funds which disclose holdings quarterly.

http://www.ishares.com/us/products/239695/ishares-msci-usa-minimum-volatility-etf

 

[ANDR01D]

If you are looking into minimizing tax consequences you may want to look into an ETF instead of a mutual fund. They are almost the same except ETF's are traded like a stock on an exchange. ETF's also disclose their holdings daily unlike Mutual Funds which disclose holdings quarterly.

http://www.ishares.com/us/products/239695/ishares-msci-usa-minimum-volatility-etf

Awesome! Thanks for the link, I'll do some reading this afternoon.

 

[PoLaRpEaK]

$1000 is pocket change, throw it all in something due for a bounce

 

[jensen]

What are your goals for investing? Are you trying to save for retirement or are you trying to have liquid funds you can draw on? If you are trying to save for retirement you should be opening an IRA and investing through that so you can save on taxes.

As for the ETFs, you can find an ETF for most any index. The S&P 500 is solid indicator of the overall health of the economy. The ticker for Vanguard's S&P 500 index is VOO.

Also, anything that is exchange traded you don't need a minimum to buy into, so long as you can afford one share.

If you aren't familiar with trading I'd recommend opening a fake money account to mess around with for a month or two before you start tossing around real money. You can gain some valuable knowledge before it really counts.

 

[jensen]

What are your goals for investing? Are you trying to save for retirement or are you trying to have liquid funds you can draw on? If you are trying to save for retirement you should be opening an IRA and investing through that so you can save on taxes.

As for the ETFs, you can find an ETF for most any index. The S&P 500 is solid indicator of the overall health of the economy. The ticker for Vanguard's S&P 500 index is VOO.

Also, anything that is exchange traded you don't need a minimum to buy into, so long as you can afford one share.

If you aren't familiar with trading I'd recommend opening a fake money account to mess around with for a month or two before you start tossing around real money. You can gain some valuable knowledge before it really counts.

This is a good article on funds vs. ETFs and specifically index based ETFs:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-index-based-etfs-beat-140038065.html