I want to invest $5,000 into an IRA.

I narrowed it down to either a mutual fund or an index fund now my question is...

the index fund i like had a good return over the past few years. 11.55% since inception which was 08/31/1976. But it only grew 3.43% in 10 years. the fees on avg for this fund is 0.15%.

The other fund - a mutual fund had a 7.03% increase since inception which was started in 2006. A greater increase then the index fund in the 10 year avg. but then again this is too new to determine. The fees on this fund is 0.20%.

I think the amount of time i'm are going to leave it in there is ~ 10 years. Well past the 59 1/2 restriction on an IRA.

Which one is a better investment? Index Funds are good because of their low fees and they do well overtime while the mutual fund is good too; the fees aren't that high and so far it has a good return but it's too young to tell.

this question is better suited to diehards.org which is a forum of mostly vanguard investors who discuss investing in index funds

oh really? i dindt know that. let me edit my original post then. THANKS!

It's ok to mention individual funds, but individual stocks is a no-no.

Airjdirectx23 said:I want to invest $5,000 into an IRA.11.55% since inception which was 08/31/1976. But it only grew 3.43% in 10 years. the fees on avg for this fund is 0.15%.

The other fund - a mutual fund had a 7.03% increase since inception which was started in 2006... so far it has a good return but it's too young to tell.

Past Performance does not indicate future results.

ArbolLoco said:theman2 said:this question is better suited to diehards.org which is a forum of mostly vanguard investors who discuss investing in index fundsis there one for fidelity investors?Just call fidelity. Free of charge, they will give you a somewhat-custom-tailored list of low-cost, well-diversified funds to invest in. Basically, you talk to a guy about how old you are and when you want to retire, and your risk tolerance, and a few other things, and he enters all that crap into the computer and emails you 10 or so fund picks.

I did that as a jumping-off point for my one account that is not managed by my portfolio manager. Not all of the funds were fidelity, by the way. All were low expense ratio and no transaction fee. I didn't follow the computer model exactly, but it helped narrow things down a bit.

well if this is your first investment and you are starting out with 5K i would recommend you to go with Target date retirement fund with 90% stock / 10% bond .e.g. vanguard's 2050 fund has an expense ratio of 0.21% and you won't go wrong with it .