1. Choose an index and goal for the fund
The first step is to pick an index from a range of different indexes you can track using index funds. If you're looking to make a mint in a few years and are willing to take a lot of risk, you may be more interested in individual stocks. But if you're looking to let your money grow slowly over time, particularly if you're saving for retirement, index funds may be a great investment for your portfolio.
2. Pick the correct fund
After picking an index, you need to look for at least one index fund that tracks it. Incase of several funds tracking the same index ask yourself these questions:
2. Pick the correct fund
Which is the index fund that most closely tracks the index's performance? Which index fund costs less? Are there any factors preventing you from investing in the fund? What companies are being picked by the fund? Answering these questions makes it much simpler to choose the appropriate index fund.
3. Buy index fund stocks
To be able to buy index funds, one can either open a brokerage account through which you can purchase and sell shares of the index fundor to go directly through the fund house that provides the chosen index fund.