Ed4252 wrote:Thanks for everyone's response. So individual stocks wouldn't be a good idea even if it's only a portion of my portfolio like 30-50%??
thats mostly right. theres nothing wrong with holding individual stocks if you are holding quite a few of them (something like 30+). holding 5 isnt going to get you sufficient diversification so it generally isnt a strategy for long-term investing. its OK to have some carefully selected individual stocks to complement your other mutual fund holdings. i dont know what % is optimal for you but i would think something significantly less that 30-50%.
Is there a way to evaluate mutual funds based on how much risk/growth they will have?
talk to your broker or if you are doing it yourself check out sites like motley fool (fool.com).
http://www.fool.com/mutualfunds/mutualf ... ?source=LN