Look for low costs
If you are choosing funds to create your portfolio, remember that costs have a substantial impact on long-term returns. Fund costs are subtracted, dollar for dollar, from investment returns. The lower your costs, the more of your investment returns you can keep. One measure of a fund’s cost to own is its expense ratio.

Consider an index fund
An index fund aims to track the performance of a certain index such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Index funds generally have lower expense ratios than actively managed funds because they don’t employ costly fund managers or analysts.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.