• All Black 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    25% Funds, 25% Stocks, 25% Real Estate, 25% Term Deposit. Spread your risk.

  • mt_ski 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    Most mutual funds are invested in stocks in the stock market.

    With a question like that I would put most of your money in a couple mutual funds because you are a new investor. Pick a couple safe mutual funds and put all your cash in that.

  • Pete H 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    Bulid a balenced portfolio …CDs ,Stock, and Mutual Funds.

  • Dave W 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    You should keep about 6 months worth of expenses in cash-like investments (savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts). If you’re relatively young, I would put the rest in stocks because they historically provide the best returns over long periods of time. I recommend that new investors use stock mutual funds (no-load funds from companies like American Century, Vanguard, Fidelity) rather than buying individual stocks. Once you have at least $25,000 and a good understanding of how the stock market works, then you can start buying individual stocks if you want to.

  • akhil.gupta02 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    Both have their own pros and cons.Stock market is risky + you need to have some knowledge about the stock market.The returns can be substantially more than mutual funds.
    On the other hand mutual funds are relatively safe.It is for the people who do not have much time or knowledge.
    It must be remembered that when there is a fall in stock market,both the price of shares as well as NAV of your mutual fund generally falls.

  • Johnny 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    Diversification is a big attraction for many investors who choose mutual funds. Here’s an example of why. Suppose you heard that Phenomenal Pharmaceuticals (example name) has developed a drug that stops cancer cells in their tracks. You run to the phone, call your broker, and invest all your savings in shares of Phenomenal stock. Five years later, the Food and Drug Administration denies the company approval for the drug and the company goes belly up, taking your entire nest egg with it. Your money would have been much safer in a mutual fund.

    A mutual fund might buy some shares of a promising, but risky, company like Phenomenal without exposing investors like you to financial ruin. A fund owns stocks or bonds from dozens of companies, diversifying against the risk of bad news from any single company or sector. So when Phenomenal goes belly up, the fund may barely feel a ripple. It would be difficult, and expensive, to diversify like that on your own, unless you have a few hundred thousand dollars and a great deal of time to invest. You would need to invest money in at least eight to twelve different companies in various industries to ensure that your portfolio could with-stand a downturn in one or more of the investments.

    Mutual funds typically invest in 25 to 100 securities, or more. Proper diversification increases the probability that the fund receives the highest possible return at the lowest possible risk, given the objectives of the fund. We are not suggesting that mutual funds escape without share-price declines during major market downturns.

  • JSan521704 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    It depends more on what you want. My personal thought is that if interest rates do not change anytime soon, then Private Equity will continue to be very active in the Public Equity markets and will drive equity markets much higher. Private Equity has been basically buying everything they can get their hands on with a market cap below 100 Billion and which generates a good amount of cash. Look for fallen angels with in the indexes and pile into those. But if you are unsure of yourself, and would like to have a bit more safety in your investments, I would tend to stay more towards investing in some of the ETF Baskets and Indexes due to their low expense structure.

  • derek 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    Huh?
    Mutual funds (stock funds anyhow) are a way to invest in the stock market. With a stock mutual fund, you are basically hiring somebody to pick and choose the stocks to buy and sell for you.

    If I were just starting out (your question implies this fact) I’d start out with a good stock mutual fund. Eventually you may want to buy and sell your own stocks, but I’d keep learning before going that route.

  • Melody S 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    Most mutual funds are invested in the stock market….the real question is do you want to invest in mutual funds or try to pick individual stocks on your own…I would most deinitely say mutual funds…if you have to ask this question on yahoo then you don’t have enough investment experience to try to play the market with individual stocks. Mutual funds are great because when you buy a share of a mutual fund you buy a percentage of all the stocks they own. There are many ways to go….you can chose index funds which generally have cheaper fees or you can chose actively managed funds that have a fund manager that picks what stocks to buy and sell inside the fund and tries to beat the performance of the market….both have pros and cons and their supporters and detractors….the important thing is to come up with a good investment strategy and be disciplined with it….investing is not a get rich quick scheme….it takes discipline and a long term focus to be successful

  • Lav 5:03 am on May 5, 2010

    I would suggest you take the help of some experienced person and buy stocks of some good companies because mutual funds also invest the money in the stock market.