How to Find The Best Mutual Funds

Mutual funds are one of the single best ways to invest, because you have people who are dedicated to making you money working for you to find the best investments. Different mutual funds have different goals and have different track records. There are tens of thousands of mutual funds out there, so here's how to find the top picks.

	At this time, I prefer CNBC's mutual fund screener for its amazing flexibility. There is a link below in the resources section, or your can do a Google search for CNBC mutual fund screener, or you can copy and paste the following URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839074/site/14081545/
		Click on Create Custom Screen (see image)
		Select the general categories of attributes that you are interested in. "Returns" is probably one of the most important categories.
		Put check marks next to the individual items that are important to you. In this image, I only want mutual funds that have averaged at least 8% over the last 10 years and at least 12% since the fund was created.
		Continue to add attributes until you have everything that you want. Once you're ready, click on "View Screen Matches". It will then show a list of all matching mutual funds. In my search, I am looking for funds that did at least 8% over the last 10 years, 12% since inception, are at least 18 years old, are open to new investors, and require less than a $10,000 initial investment inside of IRAs.

• Remember, in times of economic trouble, don't look for the mutual funds that did excellently in down markets. Those mutual funds are designed to do well in down markets and do poorly in up markets. You don't want to be losing all your money when other people are gaining it.
• Down markets are an excellent time to buy mutual funds that have a long track record of excellent performance, but that haven't been doing so hot in the last year. For example, there is one fund that dropped half its value in 2008, but it's over 40 years old and has a track record of well over 12% per year over the long run.