system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What benefits do mutual funds provide, and why invest in a mutual fund instead of a dividend stock or other asset that would bring sooner returns?
gpt
The reason to buy a mutual fund is because you are not going to be good at picking stocks.  Buying an individual stock is essentially gambling.  You are betting that you know better than the market what the value of the stock will be.

When you buy a mutual fund you are buying a large group of stocks.  The risk averages out.  You will not make as much money as the best stock or lose as much as the worst stock.

The recommendation is to buy an index fund such as an S&P 500 index fund.  The fund just buys the stock of the companies in the S&P 500.  You will do as well as the S&P 500 does.