The Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments about mutual fund expenses. But you shouldn't wait for the highest court in the land to rule on whether or not investors are getting ripped off on management fees. You can make choices today and have lower costs on any investment.

First, you can buy your investments direct (aka "no load") -- not through a commissioned salesperson (aka "load"). Second, you can buy index funds, which contain a broad spectrum of capitalism. That way you're not paying some supposed brainiac's salary to pick individual stocks for you. Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity all sell index funds.

Meanwhile, a recent report from the Hammond Group finds that just buying plain vanilla index funds and holding them for 10 years will net you more money than doing the same with most traditional mutual funds. Keeping your cost low actually matters more than any brainiac's allegedly expert financial advice.

One final thought: This is not the time to feel as though it's "safe" to get back into the stock market. The market could go up, down or sideways from here. You need to dollar cost average by putting in equal amounts every pay period to minimize volatility. Tiptoe back into the game, don't jump back in with both feet!