Best-Performing Mutual Funds: January 2021

This article provides information and education for investors. NerdWallet does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks or securities.

When shopping for mutual funds, we naturally are curious: Which ones are performing the best today?

While that’s a common place to begin your search, remember you’re shopping for tomorrow when looking for the best mutual funds. Top performers in the short term don’t always become long-term winners. The best mutual funds for your portfolio won’t necessarily be the best for your parents, your siblings or your neighbors.

For more on how to choose a mutual fund, skip ahead to this section.

Best-performing U.S. equity mutual funds as of January 2021

To determine the best mutual funds measured by year-to-date returns, we looked at U.S. equity funds open to new investors with low costs (no sales commissions, and expense ratios of 1% or less) and minimum investments of $2,500 or less using data from Morningstar.

Data current as of Dec. 5, 2020.

How to choose the best mutual funds for you

NerdWallet’s recommendation is to invest primarily through mutual funds, especially index funds, which passively track a market index such as the S&P 500. The mutual funds above are actively managed, which means they try to beat stock market performance — a strategy that often fails.

» Related: Best performing stocks this month

When you're ready to invest in funds, here's what to consider:

• Decide whether to invest in active or passive funds, knowing that both performance and costs often favor passive investing.

• Understand and scrutinize fees. A broker that offers no-transaction-fee mutual funds can help cut costs.

• Build and manage your portfolio, checking in on and rebalancing your mix of assets once a year.

» Learn more: How to invest in mutual funds

Average mutual fund return

Managing your portfolio also means managing your expectations, and different types of mutual funds should bring different expectations for returns.

Stock mutual funds = higher potential returns (or losses)

Stock mutual funds, also known as equity mutual funds, carry the highest potential rewards, but also higher inherent risks — and different categories of stock mutual funds carry different risks.

For example, the performance of large-cap high-growth funds is typically more volatile than, say, stock index funds that seek only to match the returns of a benchmark index like the S&P 500, which has grown an average of 6.6% a year over the past 30 years. (Learn more about stock mutual funds versus index funds.)

Over the past five years, the average equity mutual fund return ranged by category from minus-2.23% for Latin America stock funds to 10.53% for large-cap growth stocks, according to Aug. 28 data from Morningstar.

» Related: 25 best performing high-dividend ETFs 

Bond mutual funds = lower returns (but lower risk)

Bond mutual funds, as the name suggests, invests in a range of bonds and provide a more stable rate of return than stock funds. As a result, potential average returns are lower.

Bond investors buy government and corporate debt for a set repayment period and interest rate. While no one can predict future stock market returns, bonds are considered a safer investment as governments and companies typically pay back their debt (unless either goes bust).

Like equity funds, there are a range of bonds with varying degrees of risk. Over the past five years, the average bond mutual fund return ranged by category from minus-0.9% for emerging-markets local-currency bond funds to 6.7% for long-term government bonds, according to Morningstar.

Money market mutual funds = lowest returns, lowest risk

These are fixed-income mutual funds that invest in top-quality, short-term debt. They are considered one of the safest investments you can make. Money market funds are used by investors who want to protect their retirement savings but still earn some interest — somewhere between 1% and 3% a year. (Learn more about money market funds.)

Focus on what matters

Chasing past performance may be a natural instinct, but it often isn't the right one when placing bets on your financial future. Mutual funds are the cornerstone of buy-and-hold and other retirement investment strategies. Hopping from stock to stock based on performance is a rear-view-mirror tactic that rarely leads to big profits. That's especially true with mutual funds, where each transaction may bring costs that erode any long-term gains.

What's important to consider is the role any mutual fund you buy will play in your total portfolio. Mutual funds are inherently diversified, as they invest in a collection of companies (rather than buying stock in just one). That diversity helps spread your risk.

You can create a smart, diversified portfolio with just a few well-chosen mutual funds or exchange-traded funds, plus annual check-ins to fine-tune your investment mix.

Disclosure: The author held no positions in the aforementioned securities at the time of publication.