Today's new investors can start investing money in mutual funds the simple way, even before they learn to invest money and make investment decisions on their own. In fact, if you start investing in the right funds, you'll likely do better than many folks who actually think they know what they are doing.

The truth is that if most people didn't start investing money until they really knew what they were doing, they would never get started. This is not rocket science, yet few Americans actually take the time to learn to invest money. That's why mutual funds are designed for average or relatively uninformed investors. In other words, these funds are designed for the vast majority of people. For 2014, 2015 and well beyond things should be simpler than ever before for new investors who want to start investing money for retirement and other longer-term financial goals.

Traditionally, the big advantage of mutual funds has been that these investor packages offer professional money management to investors at a reasonable (usually) cost. When you own shares in a mutual fund, you own a very small part of a very large professionally managed investment portfolio. Question: between now and the time when you actually get up to speed and learn to invest money, how do you select a fund?

For 2014, 2015 and beyond it's a lot simpler than you may think. Most folks do not really understand stocks and bonds, but one of the first things you investing money learn if or when you learn to invest money successfully on your own, is that you need to be invested in both stocks and bonds in order to have a balanced portfolio. The advantage of balance: long term growth with only moderate risk. The good news is that new investors don't need to sift through a long list of stock funds and/or bond funds before they start investing money.

Balanced funds are available through most major funds companies. These funds automatically provide investors with a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds. They are the simplest and best way for new investors to start investing without losing sleep at night. If you find that you are losing money in a balanced fund, you can rest assured of one thing. The vast majority of investors out there (including the big investors on Wall Street) are likely losing money as well. If both the stock market and bond market get hit in 2014 and/or 2015, investors across the board will suffer.