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9 Best Mutual Funds to Buy Now

If there’s one thing investors have been reminded of this year, it’s that markets don’t move in a straight line. Volatility can feel unsettling in the moment, but history shows that short-term swings are often just noise in the context of long-term growth. The challenge is staying disciplined and consistent through it.

One of the most effective ways to do that is through diversification. Mutual funds, which can hold dozens or even thousands of securities, offer a simple way to spread risk across sectors, asset classes and regions. But choosing the right fund takes more than chasing recent winners.

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“One common pitfall is putting too much weight on recent performance instead of focusing on long-term goals and risk tolerance,” says Kathy Kellert, head of index equity product at Vanguard.

She adds that investors often underestimate the impact of costs and fail to consider how a fund fits within a broader portfolio. These mistakes can lead to unintended concentration or weaker long-term results.

A disciplined focus on multiple criteria can help prevent this. D.J. Tierney, senior investment portfolio strategist at Schwab Asset Management, suggests focusing on three key criteria: performance, risk and expense. That means looking beyond raw returns to how a fund performs relative to its benchmark or peers, assessing the durability of both the fund and its provider, and accounting for all costs, including fees, taxes and trading expenses.

The following list of some of the best mutual funds to buy now meets these criteria. Whether you’re seeking a simple, low-cost index fund or a more targeted strategy to complement your existing holdings, any one of these could make a good addition — or even starting point — for your portfolio:

MUTUAL FUND ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT EXPENSE RATIO TRAILING-12-MONTH DIVIDEND YIELD
Fidelity 500 Index Fund (ticker: FXAIX) $714.9 billion 0.015% 1.2%
Fidelity Total Market Index Fund (FSKAX) $118.9 billion 0.015% 1.1%
Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Value Index Fund (SWLVX) $1 billion 0.035% 1.8%
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VBTLX) $387.5 billion 0.04% 4.0%
Vanguard Balanced Index Fund Admiral Shares (VBIAX) $58.8 billion 0.07% 2.2%
Schwab International Index Fund (SWISX) $13.9 billion 0.06% 3.5%
Schwab Emerging Markets Equity Index Fund (SFENX) $1.7 billion 0.39% 3.7%
Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) $157.8 billion 0.74% N/A
Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund (VGSLX) $64.7 billion 0.13% 3.9%

Fidelity 500 Index Fund (FXAIX)

The place many investors start is with an S&P 500 fund, and for good reason: The index of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. covers roughly 80% of the entire U.S. market, including major players like Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). So with one fund, you can add nearly the entire stock market to your portfolio. And Fidelity’s version of an S&P 500 fund is one of the best out there.

It boasts one of the lowest expense ratios of any mutual fund at 0.015%. Its returns haven’t deviated by more than 0.02% from the S&P 500 index for the past 10 years. And with nearly 40 years of trading and $715 billion in assets under management, you can trust this fund won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. So if you’re looking for straightforward, low-cost exposure to some of the biggest names on the U.S. stock market, this fund is hard to beat.

Fidelity Total Market Index Fund (FSKAX)

An S&P 500 fund can be a good place to start, but eventually you’ll want to add a broader range of companies to your portfolio. FSKAX provides broader exposure across the entire U.S. equity market for the same cost. You can think of FXAIX as a greatest-hits album of U.S. stocks, while FSKAX includes the full discography, including smaller, lesser-known names that may or may not move the needle.

Its portfolio includes a whopping 3,773 different companies. While this is a huge range, the fund is still market-cap weighted, which means the largest companies dominate the portfolio. As a result, many of the mega-cap stocks found in the S&P 500 still drive the performance of this fund. This may be a benefit if you don’t want to feel like you’re missing out on those 500 titans but also want more diversification.

Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Value Index Fund (SWLVX)

Tracking the market at large is a great way to simplify investing, but it isn’t the only approach. If FXAIX is a bet on the market’s biggest winners and FSKAX is a bet on the entire playing field, SWLVX is a bet on a specific style: value investing.

SWLVX still targets the largest companies on the U.S. market, but it favors cheaper, dividend-paying companies that may shine when growth stocks cool off. Unsurprisingly, the top holding is renowned value investor Warren Buffett’s own Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B).

The fund also leans more heavily into sectors like financials, industrials and health care, rather than just technology. It also underweights high-growth tech names that dominate broader indexes. This means it may not keep up during tech-driven rallies, but it will be better positioned for rising rates or inflation. Think of this as a complement rather than a replacement for growth-heavy funds.

Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VBTLX)

Stocks are the growth engine of an investment portfolio, but bonds are the ballast. When the seas get rocky, it’s your bond holdings that help keep everything afloat. While bonds won’t deliver the same long-term upside as stocks, they tend to be less volatile and can provide a steady stream of income. That stability becomes especially valuable during equity market downturns, when high-quality bonds often hold their value — or even rise — as investors seek safer assets.

VBTLX makes a great ballast for U.S. investors. It provides broad exposure to the U.S. investment-grade bond market, including government, corporate and mortgage-backed securities. This includes over 11,000 bonds. In other words, it’s designed to mirror the performance of the overall U.S. bond market in a single, low-cost fund.

While VBTLX has a $3,000 investment minimum for your first purchase, you can get the same fund as an exchange-traded fund for just $1 under ticker BND.

Vanguard Balanced Index Fund Admiral Shares (VBIAX)

Investing in separate stock and bond funds lets you control your risk level, but it can be tedious. If you want an even more streamlined way to add fixed-income diversification without needing to juggle multiple funds, a balanced fund may be for you.

A balanced fund like VBIAX combines both stocks and bonds into a single portfolio. “That built-in diversification, along with a disciplined asset allocation, can help take the emotion and guesswork out of investing,” Kellert says.

Balanced funds can come in many different risk levels. More stocks mean greater growth potential but also higher risk, while more bonds level everything out. VBIAX aims for a “Goldilocks” approach with roughly 60% stocks and 40% bonds.

It’s still a passive fund, but it tracks two indexes instead of one: the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Index for broad fixed-income exposure and the CRSP US Total Market Index, which tracks nearly 100% of the U.S. stock market and includes stocks of all sizes. This enables it to keep expenses low at only 0.07%.

[5 Best Schwab ETFs to Buy in 2026]

Schwab International Index Fund (SWISX)

One key element of a diversified portfolio has been left off this list so far: international exposure. The U.S. stock market represents only about 60% of the total global market capitalization. If you focus only on domestic funds, you may be missing a significant portion of the opportunity set — especially during times when the U.S. economy is lagging behind foreign nations.

This is where SWISX comes into play. This global fund tracks U.S. stocks from developed foreign economies. It covers 21 developed markets in Europe, Australasia and the Far East. The bulk of the portfolio is in Japan (nearly 24%) and the U.K. (about 14.7%), but you’ll get exposure to 27 different countries in all. This includes many established global companies across sectors such as financials, industrials and health care, offering a different mix than the tech-heavy U.S. market — all for a modest expense ratio of 0.06% and no investment minimum.

Schwab Emerging Markets Equity Index Fund (SFENX)

SWISX is great for exposure to developed international markets, but these are only part of the global picture. Developed foreign nations are established, stable economies like Japan and the U.K., while emerging markets are faster-growing but less mature economies like India and Brazil. Think of developed markets as established businesses with steady growth and predictable earnings, while emerging markets are more like startups, offering higher growth potential, but with more uncertainty along the way. So if you want even broader diversification with the potential for more long-term growth, consider a fund like SFENX.

SFENX “offers the potential for value and yield factor exposures in a diversified selection of emerging-market stocks,” Tierney says. This includes countries like China, Taiwan and Brazil, where economies are expanding more rapidly than in many developed markets. These countries tend to have younger populations and growing middle classes that can support long-term economic growth.

That growth potential comes with added volatility. Emerging markets can be more sensitive to political risk, currency fluctuations and global economic shifts. But they also offer diversification benefits, as their performance doesn’t always move in lockstep with U.S. or developed international stocks. So if you already hold funds like SWISX, adding SFENX can help round out global exposure, capturing both stability in developed markets and higher growth potential in emerging economies.

Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX)

Index funds are designed to match the market, which is all you need for a strong portfolio. But if you want a shot at beating it, an active fund like FCNTX is a good option. Instead of tracking an index, a portfolio manager selects stocks they believe are “not fully recognized by the public.” These can be value or growth stocks, and U.S. or international. The fund is 90% in U.S. stocks presently, but it covers 10 regions and 20 countries in total.

FCNTX has a nearly 60-year track record and has beat the S&P 500 over the last one-, three-, five- and 10-year periods. However, it can lag behind the broader market if the managers don’t make good picks. You’ll also have to pay a bit more for the expert oversight through a 0.74% expense ratio. So, if it starts to underperform, you’ll be paying twice over. But if you’re willing to take on that trade-off, FCNTX can serve as a complement to passive holdings or as a core position for a more hands-on approach to growth investing.

Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund (VGSLX)

Stocks and bonds are the foundation of most portfolios, but adding real estate can provide an additional layer of diversification, especially in today’s environment of elevated interest rates and shifting property values. Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, offer exposure to income-producing properties without the need to buy or manage physical real estate.

VGSLX tracks a broad basket of U.S. REITs, including companies that own data centers, hotels, office buildings and other properties. These can generate steady income through rents, making REIT funds a potential source of steady income as evidenced by the nearly 4% trailing-12-month yield on VGSLX.

Real estate also tends to behave differently than traditional stocks and bonds, which can help smooth overall returns. While higher interest rates have pressured REITs in recent years, they’ve also created more attractive entry points for long-term investors. If you want to diversify beyond stocks and bonds, VGSLX offers a low-cost, liquid way to add real estate exposure to your portfolio.

More from U.S. News

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9 Best Mutual Funds to Buy Now originally appeared on usnews.com

Update 04/17/26: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.

Maine Democratic Senate frontrunner faces scrutiny over alleged anger outbursts

(CNN) — In the insular world of Maine politics, it’s known as the “water bottle incident.”The moment happened some five years ago when then-state Senate president Troy Jackson clashed with fellow Democrats during a private meeting inside the state capitol. Jackson, a gruff former logger who has now catapulted into position as the state’s likely Democratic nominee for US Senate, grew so angry with one female lawmaker that he hurled a plastic water bottle.That’s where the stories diverge.The female legislator told colleagues that the incident deeply frightened her because she felt Jackson was aiming to hit her with the bottle, according to five sources who learned of the incident shortly after it occurred. That legislator was distraught as she left the meeting that day; months later she decided not to run for reelection in part, she told colleagues, because of Jackson’s conduct, three sources said.Jackson’s campaign acknowledged to CNN on Monday that he had thrown the water bottle during the meeting but disputed he had lobbed it in anyone’s direction.“Troy Jackson is passionate and deeply invested in the people and policies he advocates for,” the campaign said in a statement. “Over 22 years in public office, there have been moments when he let his frustration get the better of him. When that happened, he took responsibility and apologized directly at the time. “The statement said that an eyewitness recalled “the bottle was thrown away from everyone and struck no one.” The campaign said it was referring to Mark Lawrence, a state senator in the room for the confrontation, who told CNN that he saw the bottle being thrown away from others in the room.Either way, the incident has raised vigorous debates within Maine’s Democratic establishment still reeling from its previous nominee for Senate, Graham Platner, dropping out after a former girlfriend accused him of rape and other former partners accused him of physical intimidation and other alarming behavior, allegations he has denied.Jackson has not been accused of any physical abuse or criminal wrongdoing, and even his critics are quick to separate his conduct in the Maine statehouse from the allegations against Platner. All five people who described the thrown water bottle were Democrats involved in local politics who requested anonymity for fear of retribution.In a later Democratic caucus meeting, Jackson did address the water bottle incident and apologized, though it was not enough for some of the female lawmaker’s allies, according to two people in the room.The water bottle clash, which was first reported by the Washington Post, was not a one-off for a lawmaker also known for pounding on desks, storming out of rooms, getting into shouting matches with members of his own party and swearing at colleagues, sources told CNN – with one ex-colleague resorting to recording meetings out of concerns over his behavior. Critics say his brash conduct, particularly with female colleagues, raises alarm bells about his temperament as the nominee for a key Senate race.“It felt like he was using his body and his voice to make people fearful,” said the former colleague who described recording meetings with him. “I was in a room multiple times where he escalated the situation with both the intent and natural ability to really intimidate using his physical presence.” (She said she did not ultimately keep the recordings because Jackson did not exhibit any concerning behavior in those meetings.)Jackson’s team said in its statement that he was involved in “heated, often two-way disputes over consequential legislation among powerful elected leaders.”“There were many more instances of Troy working alongside those same colleagues to deliver universal school meals, paid family and medical leave, and prescription-drug relief for Maine families,” the campaign said. “Troy regrets the moments when disagreements became too heated, but passion for the issues he advocates for should not be confused with physical intimidation or bullying.”His campaign also disputed that his confrontations were ever aimed specifically at female colleagues, arguing that many of Jackson’s fellow top Democrats were women, and so it was not surprising that some of his more contentious conversations involved them.Heather Sanborn, the former Democratic lawmaker who told colleagues at the time that Jackson had targeted her with the water bottle in that private meeting, declined comment to CNN.Many other prominent Democrats who spoke on the record with CNN argued that Jackson’s political style is just what their party needs to take on President Donald Trump and finally defeat GOP Sen. Susan Collins in the November race.Former state Rep. Janice Cooper acknowledged to CNN that Jackson is “rough around the edges” but said: “This moment calls for a rabble-rouser.”Jennifer DeChant, another former state House Democrat who overlapped with Jackson, told CNN that his direct approach helped get things done. “If everyone is happy with you all the time, you’re not doing your job in politics… He doesn’t run things like he’s coddling in kindergarten.”‘Not every problem requires a chainsaw’During Jackson’s leadership in Augusta, multiple Democrats described a widespread feeling inside the party that no one was willing to push back against him and risk blowback from him or his team of loyalists.One Maine Democrat who worked closely with Jackson told CNN she had confronted him about his behavior multiple times – including after the thrown water bottle. But it did not prompt a change, she said.“He doesn’t always understand that not every problem requires a chainsaw or an ax to get it out of the way,” that person told CNN, who described Jackson as a “complex” person. “I certainly saw him verbally abusing male colleagues.”She described what she witnessed as “bullying” – “sort of pushing his weight around.”Multiple local and state politicians said they were reluctant to go on the record, citing what they said was Jackson’s volatile personality.Jackson’s futureThe dozens of Democrats interviewed for this story made clear to CNN that they did not consider Jackson’s behavior to be on the same level as their former nominee’s alleged rape of a woman in 2021. (Platner dropped out of the race shortly after CNN and Politico reported the allegations.)In the frenetic weeks since Platner dropped out, Maine Democrats have raced to choose his replacement, with Jackson now widely expected to lock up the nomination at this weekend’s nominating convention.Some of those interviewed by CNN said they were speaking out because they wanted Jackson to publicly address what they viewed as anger issues, particularly toward women, and work to resolve it ahead of the general election, when he would take on Collins.Stacy Leafsong, a progressive organizer who held an event for Jackson, who at the time was running for governor, and Platner early in the campaign cycle, told CNN that she is not concerned about Jackson’s temperament on the Senate floor.“There’s no comparison between him and Graham,” she said, adding that she is in frequent communication with Jackson. Leafsong, who publicly condemned Platner, considers herself “a devout, like hardcore feminist” and said she “100%” believes in Jackson. “I think he’s a good guy… He’s the real deal.”David Farmer, a longtime veteran of Maine politics, told CNN that Jackson’s reputation for being “fiery” is well known in the statehouse.When asked about Jackson’s treatment of his female peers, Farmer first acknowledged his own vantage point as a White man close in age to Jackson, but said he never saw anything in particular that concerned him. He said that Jackson’s brusque personality wasn’t necessarily disqualifying.“He wears his emotions on his sleeve – it can be good and it can be bad,” he said. “He is a normal guy in that regard. He cares passionately, and he acts passionately.”But one person who worked closely with Jackson stressed that it is “no longer acceptable to treat other people with disdain, disregard and disrespect,” and that he’s “got a lot to learn.”“If he does become our candidate, he needs to address how he’s going to be a leader not just for the bros, but for all of us,” that person said.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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