I'm afraid to ask....

[Petunia 100]

I'm not sure if there really is such a thing as a beginner's investing fund.

There are good funds and there are bad ones.

People have their opinions on financial advisers, but someone in your situation with no knowledge or confidence to self direct your investments "could" potentially benefit from a sit down meeting with someone.
Stick to the major players like Fidelity or Vanguard.
I believe that Dave Ramsey has a network of managers that he recommends. Check out his website.

Yes, he does. Anyone willing to pay the monthly fee to DR can be on that list. Think about that for a moment; is it really a recommendation?

[disneysteve]

I agree with the others. Stay far away from Dave Ramsey's advisers. Dave is great for debt reduction and budgeting but that's it. Don't take his investment advice and don't go to his paid financial sales people.

[MaryKay]

NOOOOO DO NOT USE Dave Ramsey. I would do VTI and BND and throw in some international like Corn and keep it simple. You'll do fine. Super simple? 50% VTI, 40% BND, and 10% VXUS I am pretty similar to Corn. I keep it simple now because I don't want to pick stocks anymore.

Not a fan of Dave Ramsey, either

[Like2Plan]

I'm afraid to ask advice from all you seasoned investors because I know NOTHING about investing I know this is going to sound stupid, but I'd like your opinions, please.

Knowing what I do about investments...which is zero!....and you had a small amount of $$$ (say $5,000)....where would you start?

I've had some suggestions in another post and I looked at them (on Vanguard), but it's like reading Chinese. So....the suggestions from other's have been:

VTINX
VSCGX
VASIX
VWINX

Are these good choices for a beginner, like me? Do you have better recommendations? When a choice (or 2) are made, do you keep adding money to them?

I can see all the eye-rolls now, but I've never learned how to do this and I'm 73 and just starting out, so be gentle....haha

Thanks

So, as the questions unfold it seems like you are looking for more than what is a good index fund to invest in...

The thing is you need to look at your investments overall not just a little dab of this or a little dab of that. Done this way the advice you are going to get is like the parable of the blind men trying to describe an elephant. (just for reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant )

For example, you are taking a small amount and investing it. Later on you mentioned that the majority of your portfolio is in savings earning 1.6%. So, if you were to invest the 5K in Wellesley-- it is about 40% stocks and 60% bonds. But, your overall portfolio allocation would be a much lower percentage of stocks because you already have the majority of your savings in cash or bonds.

Now, at 73 maybe you don't want 40% stocks. But, a good starting point would be to ask you what is the goal for this investment? How soon will you need it? What would you like your overall asset allocation to be? Is tax efficiency important? Wellesley is not particularly tax efficient https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=184872 I've always thought of Wellesley as a good income producing fund. This is from the product summary: "This focus may provide a higher quarterly income distribution than non-income-focused balanced funds. Investors with a medium- or long-term time horizon who have a goal of steady income and who are willing to accept modest movement in share price may wish to consider this fund as a core holding in their portfolio."

[LivingAlmostLarge]

What about I bonds? Paying 2% and a hedge against inflation.

[kork13]

Eh, I-Bonds aren't much different from what she's already got in her savings account. I mean, she could use I-Bonds for a part of that cash, but she still needs to maintain some liquidity... But the I-Bonds will (almost by definition) never really grow.