You Don't Need Much to Start

Given the steep minimum investments many mutual funds insist upon, you may assume that you simply don't have enough money to take the plunge. True, some funds charge as much as $1 million to get a foot in the door, and plenty more require even thousands of dollars as an initial investment. But despite the prominence of those high-priced funds, plenty of others are much more inviting to cash-strapped investors.

Indeed, many funds have actually become more affordable in recent years. The folks at Schwab (Nasdaq: SCHW  ) recently lowered the minimum for all their stock index funds, and some of their managed stock funds, to just $100. I think most of us can scrape at least that much together. (Have you checked your sofa cushions?)

These are just a few of the funds offering good performance and low minimum investment requirements:

Fund	Minimum	10-Year Average Annual Return	Recent Top Holdings
FMI Common Stock (FMIMX)	$1,000	10.6%	PetSmart (Nasdaq: PETM  ) , Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO  )
Heartland Select Value (HRSVX)	$1,000	9.8%	Walgreen (NYSE: WAG  ) , Anadarko Petroleum
Nicholas Equity Income I (NSEIX)	$500	4.7%	Altria (NYSE: MO  ) , AT&T (NYSE: T  )
Amana Trust Income (AMANX)	$250	5.7%	3M (NYSE: MMM  ) , Novartis (NYSE: NVS  )
S&P 500 Index fund	Varies	(1.9%)	All S&P 500 stocks

Data: Morningstar.

Snag yourself a discount
While lots of funds may have minimums of $3,000 or more, if you're buying into them through an IRA or some other retirement account, the minimum can often be considerably lower -- $500, or even $250. And with some funds, the minimum is lower -- or waived altogether -- if you sign up to make regular, automatic deposits into the fund straight from your bank account. If you find yourself attracted to a certain fund with a seemingly unreachable minimum, do a little digging; you may be able to take advantage of one or more of these budget-friendly advantages.

Even if you can't take a shortcut, there's always the old-fashioned way to get into funds with steep minimum investments: Save your money. If a great fund's $1,000 minimum is just too expensive, try socking away $250 per month for a few months until you have enough.

If a fund you favor has steep barriers to entry, don't give up hope. Whether through shortcuts, diligent savings, or a less expensive but equally promising alternative, you have plenty of ways to secure the fund investment you want.