One of the best things about mutual funds as compared with other investments is that it allows you to have much better diversification with your investments. With them, you are buying a fund that is a basically a pool of lots of different stocks, eliminating you trying to pick individual stocks and putting all of your eggs in one basket. The diversification you can get from mutual funds is really the best thing about them.
With mutual funds there are a lot of different ways you can go with them. You can be more aggressive, more conservative, more US based, more international, more large business, more small businesses, etc. No matter what type of stocks or companies you would like to invest in (even if you want a little bit of all of them), you can find a mutual fund that will do it for you.
Another good thing about mutual funds is the pretty low fees. If you are trying to buy a lot of different individual stocks and maybe moving them around a lot, you will usually pay a buying and selling fee each time. With mutual funds, you will pay a percentage no matter how many transactions are made within the fund by the fund manager.
So really, especially if you are a beginner or don’t know much about the stock market, mutual funds are a great way to go. They allow you better diversification with limits your risk some, they are professionally managed, and they offer pretty low fees. Mutual funds are definitely a great investment option.