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requirement of $3,000 ($1,000 for IRA accounts). This means that if you are buying into the fund for the first time (as a non-retirement investment) and your total order is less than $3,000, your order will be rejected.

Final Notes

Mutual funds are not inherently great investments. Many of them fail to deliver results even on par with popular stock indices, and their tax headaches may be too much to handle for many investors. Many pundits have even argued that investors should shun mutual funds altogether and set up their own portfolios of stocks and bonds rather than making the fund companies rich. I am not sure if I would go that far. People continue to pour billions of dollars every year into mutual funds and many of them do it through their retirement accounts. Indeed, funds offer a great vehicle to build a nest egg for retirement for the following three reasons:

• Diversification - One area you don't want to take risks with is your retirement savings. Mutual funds offer an excellent opportunity to diversify your retirement investments, which protects you against risk.
• Professional Management - With mutual funds you can leave the management of your money to the professionals rather than doing it yourself. Who has time to manage a portfolio these days? But this still doesn't excuse you from taking some time to research the funds you may want to invest in.
• No Taxes - That is, no taxes until later. If you buy your funds through a retirement account, you don't have to worry about taxes on distributions. Once you begin withdrawing money from your account when you reach a certain age (generally 59 1/2), you would be liable for ordinary income tax. …