NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - You're young and you're hungry to make money. You're a novice to Wall Street, but you know time is on your side and you can take on more risk. The only problem is you're not sure where to start.

Growth or value? Large-, mid- or small-cap fund? There's a lot to know, even if you've been playing the market for years. Picking the perfect fund seems impossible.

So we thought we'd do the work for you. We looked for great stock pickers who have beaten their peers in good and bad markets. We also looked for strong returns -- and we're talking long term, over three, five or 10 years. And because you'll have your money invested for decades, we made sure to search for lower-cost funds.

We're excluding index funds, because those are no-brainers. You can't go wrong starting out with, say, Vanguard 500 Index, or Schwab Total Stock Market Index. They won't beat the market but they're a great way to get broad exposure to stocks at a rock-bottom price.

Here are three funds that could be perfect for you.

FUNDS FOR NEW INVESTORS       • Harbor Capital Appreciation • Vanguard Primecap • Artisan International

A good place to start investing is with large-cap stocks, because you'll get exposure to the biggest names in the market. A solid bet is Harbor Capital Appreciation, a large growth fund managed by heavyweight manager Spiros "Sig" Segalas.

The fund, with $6.6 billion in assets, has a 10-year annualized return of 13.4 percent, according to Morningstar. Segalas, who has been at the helm since 1990, has beaten the category average in every year but one.

Since it opened its doors in 1987, it has an annualized return of 16.8 percent as of Dec. 31, 2001. Top holdings as of Dec. 31 include household names that aren't going anywhere: Citigroup (C: Research, Estimates), Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates), American International Group (AIG: Research, Estimates), GE (GE: Research, Estimates) and IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates).

Another plus: it's cheap. The expense ratio is 0.64 percent, well below the average of more than 1 percent. That might not sound like much but 30 years from now, trust us, the fees add up.

You might be young, but you're not as bold as your peers. They're diving into the market; you're inching yourself in one body part at a time. Again, large-caps are a good place to start. And Vanguard is the king of cheap funds. But instead of a go-go growth fund, try a less risky blend fund.

A blend fund mixes growth stocks, which have rapidly growing earnings, and value stocks, which are the unloved companies of Wall Street. Vanguard Primecap is in the top of its category over three, five, and 10 years, according to Morningstar. The fund, with $17.5 billion in assets, has also pummeled the S&P 500 over those periods by 4 percent-to-9 percent.

The fund has a 32 percent weighting in technology, so you'll get your share of "growthy" chipmakers and software companies. But it also has 11 percent in more staid industrial cyclicals and 22 percent in services stocks. Its top holdings as of Feb. 28 are FedEx (FDX: Research, Estimates), drug stock Pharmacia (PHA: Research, Estimates), and software maker Adobe Systems (ADBE: Research, Estimates).

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If you've ever dreamt of far-away places or imagined yourself as a character in James Michener's The Drifters, then perhaps you should consider an international fund. It isn't just turning your wanderlust into an investing theme -- international stocks should be a part of a more aggressive portfolio.

Remember when you backpacked through Europe and drank Guinness in Belfast? The company behind the brand is Diageo, a British beverage producer, a top holding in Artisan International Fund.

Artisan International knocks the pants off its competitors over three- and five-year spans, according to Morningstar. In 1999, it earned a robust 81.3 percent, and in the next two tough years it beat the category by 4 percent-to-6 percent. Manager Mark Yockey has been at the helm since 1995. Morningstar likes it so much that it says it's "one of the best options available to international-fund investors."

Other top holdings as of Feb. 28 include Fortis, a Dutch financial services provider, and Japanese car maker Honda.

Since the fund opened its doors in 1995, it's earned an annualized 16.5 percent. That's pretty impressive compared with the international benchmark, the Europe, Australia and Far East (EAFE) Index, which earned a tamer 4.6 percent in the same time.