re: Starter Mutual Funds

Most people are average at any given activity. It is difficult to beat the market.

If you can great, but asset allocation and keeping expenses low requires less decisions than getting in or out of a particular investment.

That being said, I trade some options and stocks attempting to pick winners. Sometimes it works; sometimes not so much.

The pools of money that I passively manage with asset allocation have done just as well if not better than my active choices.