Subscribe Ask the Editors Search Entire site Smallbiz Bookstore Msg. The magic comes via mutual funds, a marvelous yet too often misunderstood way of getting started in stocks.
Mutual funds are simple, so let's unlock the lexicon.
A mutual fund pools thousands of investors' money and buys a portfolio of investments designed to achieve a particular goal. Bond mutual funds invest in you guessed it bonds. When you invest in mutual funds, you don't have to sit around analyzing stocks, tracking interest rates or charting commodity prices. You pick the fund, but the fund manager picks the stocks, bonds or other investments that make up the fund's portfolio. Also, instead of shuffling piles of paperwork, you'll get seriously simplified bookkeeping.