I'm starting to read up on investing and take more control of my investments.  Currently, I'm reading "The Motley Fool Investment Guide" by David and Tom Gardner.  It is an entertaining book to read, but it looks to be flawed at best.  One of the main points of the book is that mutual funds are a bad idea to invest in because on average 80% of them don't return as much as the S&P 500 index.

That may have been true when the book was written, 1996.  But it does not appear to be true today.  When I look at the returns for the funds I have over the past 10 years, most of them, even those rated "3-stars" by Morningstar, have beat the 10 year S&P return.

Have mutual funds become better managed over this time?

What do you all tend to invest in - Mutual funds (better diversification, but you pay management fees) or individual stocks (less diversification, but lower fees)?

You can get on their website and learn a lot. At least you usta be able to.

Start investing in SPY (the S&P 500 index)

Invest 90% of your money in ETF  index funds and play with 10%. Do this and you will have money. I did the opposite and lost big.  Would have a WHOLE lot less if I listened to my advice.