<prompt> Human: Hello! I am a college student finalizing my research into my first investment. Based on the relatively low lump sum I wish to invest 13,000, my desire for a lazy, easily-managed portfolio, and the advice of an advisor at Edward Jones, I believe I should invest the money in mutual funds rather than index funds because they supposedly take better advantage of an incoming bear market because the fund manager takes good buys into account.This advice was predicated on the statements that 1 the current bull market is winding down and 2 that buying high into index funds is a poor strategy. Of course, the first statement is subject to interpretation, wholly uncertain, and only worthy of discussion in another post. However, the fact is that many index funds are near an all-time high, which makes me wary of buying into them based on statement 2.My questions are these: is this advice valid that buying index funds at this time is unwise? The implication would be that one should wait until a market low to invest in such funds.Is it true that managed mutual funds circumnavigate this issue? And that now, at the end of a bull run, these would be a good buy?Are the Vanguard target retirement date funds closer to index funds or mutual funds? They seem to be managed, unlike the SP500, which for me is the purest form of unmanaged index fund. Would they be a good match for me? For my targeted retirement date, these would be: Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares VTSMX Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares VGTSX Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund Investor Shares Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund Investor Shares VTIBXIf the Vanguard funds mentioned above are more like unmanaged index funds, and if such funds truly are a poor fit when buying high, what would be a better option for someone like me? Would this ever be a situation where I should sit on the money until taking advantage of a market downturn to invest? I have read of the importance of staying invested, so this seems wrong to me, but I dont know what would be a good fit for me if not an index or managed mutual fund. I could open an account with Edward Jones and suffer higher fees for potentially good advice, but I wanted to do my due diligence and levy this subreddits collective brilliance before I got myself into something like that.Thank you!Edit: I have done the reading through this subreddits wikis and my own individual research, but am particularly interested in the effect, if any, the current market position has on this general investment advice.Edit 2: Thank you all, truly, for your advice. Vanguard has been my gut since I started looking into all of this business, and with you guys stamp of approval, its time I went with it. Thank you especially for excusing my naivete while Im learning! I hope to be able to give back, one day, and I think taking this first step will help lead me down that path to knowledge.To review, based on what Ive learned here, for anyone with questions like mine: Vanguards Target Retirement Date funds are composed of multiple sectors un-managed index funds, a type of mutual fund. These are a good fit for 10,000 investments for new investors looking for a hands-off, cant-go-wrong, long-term approach. These funds can be kept in a tax-advantaged account if you qualify based on waged income level. Managed mutual funds typically come with higher fees yet have been demonstrated to perform no better than unmanaged index funds when taking these fees into account. This advice has been offered even in the context of a superb market high, based on the aforementioned statistic which also demonstrates that time in the market is more important than timing the market because no one can accurately predict the market. However, one user points out that if you do believe the market is experiencing a significant down-turn which, again, is hard to say, then holding onto your cash and micromanaging the timing to buy low is a valid strategy as well.  <response>: the advice of an advisor at Edward JonesRun far, far away from this advisor.You cannot predict the market. Anyone who claims they can predict the market is lying, either to you or to themselves. We might be at the end of a bull market, or it might continue going up for several more years. Managed funds on average perform worse than index funds. Time in the market beats timing the market.Vanguard target date funds are funds of funds and are made up entirely of index funds. They are great for the vast majority of people. I would not hesitate to invest in one today.The 4 funds you listed are not target date funds. They are total-market index funds. But they are the very index funds that make up all of Vanguards target date funds, in varying percentages depending on the target date. 