when the late, great john bogle, the father of the index fund asked me how i could beat the averages so consistently, i said i limited my investors and made it like a club where you had to be nominated to get in that meant i was never overwhelmed with new money something that often leads to bad investment decisions he said if everyone did that they could have better records, too, and maybe that was the secret sauce i know jack bogle thought it was. that's why as a general rule if you go to invest in mutual funds, you don't want to be in an actively managed one. the fees are too high and the evidence is the bulk is too staggering they will inflict capital gains taxes where you control when to pay these for the taxes if you own your own stocks and invisible stocks, you don't have to sell and pay. if you don't have time to run your portfolio, own a cheap, low cost index fund that mirrors the s&p 500. this may sound like a real simple solution but don't over think it the whole point of putting your money in a mutual fund is to save you the time and effort required to manage your own port