T. Rowe Price [profile], Fidelity [profile] and Vanguard [profile] are among the firms which offer funds suited to the nervous investor set, according to Chuck Jaffe of MarketWatch.

Jaffe writes that investment analysts routinely say that regular investors have been so nervous about market declines since the financial crisis of 2008 that they have since missed the market’s gains. Worse, they have been losing ground to inflation by keeping their cash in instruments like bank accounts that have virtually no return.

Stuck between the twin devils of greed and fear, they might turn the typical investment-selection process on its ear, and find a way to invest that appeals to their fearful side, rather than simply hoping to develop the nerve to pursue the strategy that they think will deliver the proverbial big gains.

“People make a mistake by looking at big returns without wondering how those returns are achieved, and what kind of performance they will have to live through to get those results,” said David Snowball, who runs MutualFundObserver.com. “Very few people ask the reasonable question, ‘What is going to produce a sustainable return for me?’”

Snowball explored that question this month on his website by updating annual research into a category he calls, “Which funds are never terrible?” Specifically, he searched for no-load funds that never finished in the bottom third of their peer group over the last decade.

Thirty-three funds passed the screen. While Snowball wasn’t looking for strong returns, he got consistent performers anyway, with 29 of the funds earning four- or five-star ratings from researcher Morningstar Inc. Ten of the funds were from T. Rowe Price, with six each from Fidelity and Vanguard.

To learn more about the Woody Allen-investor set, turn to Chuck Jaffe of MarketWatch. 

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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