
Mutual funds for every objective
Mutual funds come in a wide variety of styles to meet the varying needs of investors.
Mutual funds come in a wide variety of styles to meet the varying needs of investors.
04/29/2025
INVESTING ESSENTIALS
Mutual funds are owned by about 68.7 million American households.1 But are they right for you? A mutual fund is a diversified portfolio of investments, such as stocks or bonds, managed by a professional investment manager or team of managers. When you buy shares of a mutual fund, you are essentially buying a piece of its entire portfolio.
Below are a few reasons why a mutual fund may be a fit for your investment needs.
Mutual funds are often popular because they offer access to the stock and bond markets—as well as professional management and a diversified portfolio—for a relatively modest initial investment. So, you can get into the market for as little as $50 a month. For example, when investing in a Thrivent mutual fund, you could start with a $50 per month automatic investment.2 While mutual funds provide the potential to grow your money or generate income, they also carry the risk of loss of capital—just like stocks and bonds themselves.
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You may have heard of no-load mutual funds. With a no-load fund, you would not be charged a commission or sales charge when you make or sell your investment. This may be one benefit of making a purchase directly with a mutual fund firm versus with a brokerage firm, although there are discount brokerage firms that may not charge commissions or fees, as well.
With a mutual fund, a professional investment manager determines which asset classes belong in your portfolio. You eliminate the need to build your own portfolio and manage this daily to stay in line with your investment objectives. This likely will reduce the time you spend managing your investments and allow you to plug into a team of experienced financial professionals. Some investors choose mutual funds simply for the convenience and time-saving aspects of having a team of professionals working to manage their investments.
Diversification—the practice of owning a broad range of investments to mitigate risk—is a fundamental tenet of investing. Someone who invested all their money in just one stock could lose their entire investment, theoretically, if that stock became worthless. Someone who invested in that stock plus many others would face less risk.
One of the benefits of mutual fund investing is that it allows you to own a diversified portfolio for potentially less than it would cost you to build a prudently diversified portfolio on your own. Buying just 100 shares of a $30 stock, for example, would cost $3,000. Bonds are often sold in denominations of $1,000, $5,000 or higher. By contrast, a $3,000 investment in a mutual fund could get you a stake in a portfolio containing dozens or hundreds of individual securities, providing far greater diversification. Although diversification cannot eliminate risk, it may help mitigate losses in a down market.
If a mutual fund sounds like it may fit your needs, your next step may be to learn more about different types of Thrivent mutual funds.
1 “Majority of American Households Rely on Mutual Funds to Save and Invest.” Investment Company Institute. 2023.
2 New accounts with a minimum investment amount of $50 are offered through the Thrivent Mutual Funds “automatic purchase plan.” Otherwise, the minimum initial investment requirement is $2,000 for non-retirement accounts and $1,000 for IRA or tax-deferred accounts, minimum subsequent investment requirement is $50 for all account types. Account minimums for other options vary.