American Funds American Balanced AABALX

American Funds American Balanced looks stodgy, but it has made enough good bets to wind up ahead of the pack.

This Fund Analyst Pick is a typical moderate-allocation fund, stashing about 60% of its assets in large- and mega-cap stocks, while reserving the remainder for a mixture of mostly government and high-quality corporate bonds.  Read more 

This fund keeps it simple. Its management tends to invest about 60% of the fund's assets in equities while devoting the remainder to high-quality bonds and cash. The fund's stock portfolio is broadly diversified across sectors and individual names, with a bias toward value-priced securities.  Read more 

Like most American funds, this one is steered by a very experienced team. This fund's seven portfolio counselors have been with American Funds or affiliates for between 14 and 33 years, as of the July 2008 prospectus. The managers are backed by a seasoned and deep team of research analysts, who are also responsible for managing a portion of the fund's assets.  Read more 

This fund buys cheap blue-chip stocks and holds them for the long term. Typically, it puts at least 60% of its assets in equities, 30% in bonds, and the remainder in cash.  Read more