I've been meaning to put my picture up, but I've been busy promoting the site. Since you asked so nicely, I'll make it a priority
. I don't think mutual funds are worth the trouble, and I'll tell you why. All market asset trading is done on an equally level field, so what does a fund manager know that you don't? The answer is nothing, so why pay a load fee for nothing? Even worse, suppose you buy a mutual fund that doesn't have a load fee. The fund manager doesn't make any money if you succeed, what's his incentive to try?
You care about your money more than anyone else ever will. While bonds are a great option, if you have the time, I'm a big venture capital fan. It's the least explored portion of investing, and I think the most rewarding. Most people imagine that you can't get into venture capital without tens of thousands to throw around, but that's not true. There's a number of services that provide venture capital to underdeveloped economies as micro loans. It's a good way to see a quality return with limited risk. (www.kiva.org)
When your building your portfolio, use a simple allocation formula. My hero, Warren Buffet, who bases his investing tactics on Markowitz's early work, would tell you that somewhere between 80 and 90% of your portfolio should be low to no risk investments. If you limit the overall risk the bulk of your money is exposed to you'll be able to gamble wildly with what's left and still see good returns.
Summary, don't give up on mutual funds, but they aren't the bedrock that they are made out to be. If you need to invest in mutual funds, expand you risky portfolio out to 15% of your investment capital, and use high risk capital to by them.
BTW, welcome to the Forum
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