Nuveen Investment Funds, Inc.

This summary prospectus is designed to provide investors with key Fund information in a clear and concise format. Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s complete prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and other information about the Fund online at www.nuveen.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling (800) 257-8787 or by sending an e-mail request to mutualfunds@nuveen.com. If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the prospectus and other information will also be available from your financial intermediary. The Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, both dated October 31, 2017, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus and may be obtained, free of charge, at the website, phone number or e-mail address noted above.

The investment objective of the Fund is to provide investors with current income to the extent consistent with preservation of capital.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. You may qualify for sales charge discounts if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $50,000 in the Fund or in other Nuveen Mutual Funds. More information about these and other discounts, as well as eligibility requirements for each share class, is available from your financial advisor and in “What Share Classes We Offer” on page 71 of the Fund’s prospectus, “How to Reduce Your Sales Charge” on page 76 of the prospectus, in the appendix to this prospectus titled “Variations in Sales Charge Reductions and Waivers Available Through Certain Intermediaries,” and “Purchase and Redemption of Fund Shares” on page S-98 of the Fund’s statement of additional information.

The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then either redeem or do not redeem your shares at the end of a period. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same and that the fee waivers currently in place are not renewed beyond July 31, 2019. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 85% of the average value of its portfolio.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of the sum of its net assets and the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes in bonds, such as:

Bonds in the Fund will be rated investment grade at the time of purchase or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the Fund’s sub-adviser. At least 65% of the Fund’s debt securities must be either U.S. government securities or securities that are rated A or better or are unrated and of comparable quality as determined by the Fund’s sub-adviser. If the rating of a security is reduced or the credit quality of an unrated security declines after purchase, the Fund is not required to sell the security, but may consider doing so. Unrated securities will not exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets.

The Fund may invest in securities that have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, but that may be resold to qualified institutional buyers in accordance with the provisions of Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933 (“Rule 144A securities”).

The Fund may invest up to 25% of its total assets in U.S. dollar denominated debt obligations of foreign corporations and governments.

The Fund’s sub-adviser selects securities using a “top-down” approach, which begins with the formulation of the sub-adviser’s general economic outlook. Following this, various sectors and industries are analyzed and selected for investment. Finally, the sub-adviser selects individual securities within these sectors or industries.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund attempts to maintain a weighted average effective maturity for its portfolio securities of three to ten years and an average effective duration of two to six years. The Fund’s weighted average effective maturity and effective duration are measures of how the value of the Fund’s shares may react to interest rate changes.

To generate additional income, the Fund may invest up to 25% of its total assets in dollar roll transactions. In a dollar roll transaction, the Fund sells mortgage-backed securities for delivery in the current month while contracting with the same party to repurchase similar securities at a future date.

The Fund may utilize the following derivatives: options; futures contracts; options on futures contracts; interest rate caps, collars, and floors; swap agreements, including swap agreements on interest rates, security indexes and specific securities, and credit default swap agreements; and options on the foregoing types of swap agreements. The Fund may enter into standardized derivatives contracts traded on domestic or foreign securities exchanges, boards of trade, or similar entities, and non-standardized derivatives contracts traded in the over-the-counter market. The Fund may use these derivatives in an attempt to manage market risk, credit risk and yield curve risk, to manage the effective maturity or duration of securities in the Fund’s portfolio or for speculative purposes in an effort to increase the Fund’s yield or to enhance returns. The use of a derivative is speculative if the Fund is primarily seeking to enhance returns, rather than offset the risk of other positions. The Fund may not use any derivative to gain exposure to a security or type of security that it would be prohibited by its investment restrictions from purchasing directly.

The value of your investment in this Fund will change daily. You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The principal risks of investing in the Fund, listed alphabetically, include:

Active Management Risk—The Fund’s sub-adviser actively manages the Fund’s investments. Consequently, the Fund is subject to the risk that the investment techniques and risk analyses employed by the Fund’s sub-adviser may not produce the desired results. This could cause the Fund to lose value or its investment results to lag relevant benchmarks or other funds with similar objectives.

Bond Market Liquidity Risk—Dealer inventories of bonds, which provide an indication of the ability of financial intermediaries to “make markets” in those bonds, are at or near historic lows in relation to market size. This reduction in market making capacity has the potential to decrease liquidity and increase price volatility in the fixed income markets in which the Fund invests, particularly during periods of economic or market stress. In addition, recent federal banking regulations may cause certain dealers to reduce their inventories of bonds, which may further decrease the Fund’s ability to buy or sell bonds. As a result of this decreased liquidity, the Fund may have to accept a lower price to sell a security, sell other securities to raise cash, or give up an investment opportunity, any of which could have a negative effect on performance. If the Fund needed to sell large blocks of bonds to meet shareholder redemption requests or to raise cash, those sales could further reduce the bonds’ prices and hurt performance.

Call Risk—If, during periods of falling interest rates, an issuer calls higher-yielding debt instruments held by the Fund, the Fund may have to reinvest in securities with lower yields, which may adversely impact the Fund’s performance.

Credit Risk—Credit risk is the risk that an issuer of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make interest and principal payments when due and the related risk that the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or willingness to make such payments.

Credit Spread Risk—Credit spread risk is the risk that credit spreads (i.e., the difference in yield between securities that is due to differences in their credit quality) may increase when the market believes that bonds generally have a greater risk of default. Increasing credit spreads may reduce the market values of the Fund’s debt securities. Credit spreads often increase more for lower rated and unrated securities than for investment grade securities. In addition, when credit spreads increase, reductions in market value will generally be greater for longer-maturity securities.

Currency Risk—Even though the non-U.S. securities held by the Fund are traded in U.S. dollars, their prices are typically indirectly influenced by currency fluctuations. Changes in currency exchange rates may affect the Fund’s net asset value, interest earned, and gains or losses realized on the sale of securities.

Cybersecurity Risk—Cybersecurity risk is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Fund, its investment adviser or sub-adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor or other service provider or a financial intermediary to suffer a data breach, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Fund or its service providers may adversely impact the Fund or its shareholders. Additionally, a cybersecurity breach could affect the issuers in which the Fund invests, which may cause the Fund’s investments to lose value.

Derivatives Risk—The use of derivatives involves additional risks and transaction costs which could leave the Fund in a worse position than if it had not used these instruments. Derivative instruments can be used to acquire or to transfer the risk and returns of a security or other asset without buying or selling the security or asset. These

instruments may entail investment exposures that are greater than their cost would suggest. As a result, a small investment in derivatives can result in losses that greatly exceed the original investment. Derivatives can be highly volatile, illiquid and difficult to value. An over-the-counter derivative transaction between the Fund and a counterparty that is not cleared through a central counterparty also involves the risk that a loss may be sustained as a result of the failure of the counterparty to the contract to make required payments. The payment obligation for a cleared derivative transaction is guaranteed by a central counterparty, which exposes the Fund to the creditworthiness of the central counterparty.

Dollar Roll Transaction Risk—The use of dollar rolls can increase the volatility of the Fund’s share price, and it may have an adverse impact on performance unless the sub-adviser correctly predicts mortgage prepayments and interest rates. These transactions are subject to the risk that the counterparty to the transaction may not or be unable to perform in accordance with the terms of the instrument.

Income Risk—The Fund’s income could decline during periods of falling interest rates or when the Fund experiences defaults on debt securities it holds.

Interest Rate Risk—Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising interest rates. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. When interest rates change, the values of longer-duration debt securities usually change more than the values of shorter-duration debt securities. Rising interest rates also may lengthen the duration of debt securities with call features, since exercise of the call becomes less likely as interest rates rise, which in turn will make the securities more sensitive to changes in interest rates and result in even steeper price declines in the event of further interest rate increases.

Mortgage- and Asset-Backed Securities Risk—These securities generally can be prepaid at any time, and prepayments that occur either more quickly or more slowly than expected can adversely impact the value of such securities. They are also subject to extension risk, which is the risk that rising interest rates could cause mortgages or other obligations underlying the securities to be prepaid more slowly than expected, thereby lengthening the duration of such securities, increasing their sensitivity to interest rate changes and causing their prices to decline. A mortgage-backed security may be negatively affected by the quality of the mortgages underlying such security, the credit quality of its issuer or guarantor, and the nature and structure of its credit support.

Municipal Securities Risk—The values of municipal securities held by the Fund may be adversely affected by local political and economic conditions and developments. Adverse conditions in an industry significant to a local economy could have a correspondingly adverse effect on the financial condition of local issuers. The amount of public information available about municipal bonds is generally less than for certain corporate equities or bonds, meaning that the investment performance of the Fund may be more dependent on the analytical abilities of the Fund’s sub-adviser than funds that invest in stock or other corporate investments.

Non-U.S./Emerging Markets Risk—Non-U.S. issuers or U.S. issuers with significant non-U.S. operations may be subject to risks in addition to those of issuers located in or that principally operate in the United States as a result of, among other things, political, social and economic developments abroad and different legal, regulatory and tax environments. These additional risks may be heightened for securities of issuers located in, or with significant operations in, emerging market countries as such countries may have a higher degree of economic instability, unsettled securities laws and inconsistent regulatory systems.

Rule 144A Securities Risk—The market for Rule 144A securities typically is less active than the market for publicly-traded securities. Rule 144A securities carry the risk that their liquidity may become impaired and the Fund may be unable to dispose of the securities promptly or at reasonable prices.

Unrated Security Risk—Unrated securities determined by the Fund’s sub-adviser to be of comparable quality to rated securities which the Fund may purchase may pay a higher interest rate than such rated securities and be subject to a greater risk of illiquidity or price changes. Less public information is typically available about unrated securities or issuers than rated securities or issuers.

U.S. Government Securities Risk—U.S. government securities are guaranteed only as to the timely payment of interest and the payment of principal when held to maturity. Accordingly, the current market values for these securities will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. Securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. government agencies and instrumentalities are supported by varying degrees of credit but generally are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. No assurance can be given that the U.S. government will provide financial support to its agencies and instrumentalities if it is not obligated by law to do so.

Valuation Risk—The debt securities in which the Fund invests typically are valued by a pricing service utilizing a range of market-based inputs and assumptions, including readily available market quotations obtained from broker-dealers making markets in such instruments, cash flows and transactions for comparable instruments. There is no assurance that the Fund will be able to sell a portfolio security at the price established by the pricing service, which could result in a loss to the Fund. Pricing services generally price debt securities assuming orderly transactions of an institutional “round lot” size, but some trades may occur in smaller, “odd lot” sizes, often at lower prices than institutional round lot trades. Different pricing services may incorporate different assumptions and inputs into their valuation methodologies, potentially resulting in different values for the same securities. As a result, if the Fund were to change pricing services, or if the Fund’s pricing service were to change its valuation methodology, there could be a material impact, either positive or negative, on the Fund’s net asset value.

Zero Coupon Bonds Risk—Because interest on zero coupon bonds is not paid on a current basis, the values of zero coupon bonds will be more volatile in response to interest rate changes than the values of bonds that distribute income regularly. Although zero coupon bonds generate income for accounting purposes, they do not produce cash flow, and thus the Fund could be forced to liquidate securities at an inopportune time in order to generate cash to distribute to shareholders as required by tax laws.

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the potential risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available at www.nuveen.com/performance or by calling (800) 257-8787.

The bar chart below shows the variability of the Fund’s performance from year to year for Class A shares. The bar chart and highest/lowest quarterly returns that follow do not reflect sales charges, and if these charges were reflected, the returns would be less than those shown.

During the ten-year period ended December 31, 2016, the Fund’s highest and lowest quarterly returns were 9.70% and -5.11%, respectively, for the quarters ended June 30, 2009 and September 30, 2008.

The table below shows the variability of the Fund’s average annual returns and how they compare over the time periods indicated with those of a broad measure of market performance and an index of funds with similar investment objectives. All after-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. After-tax returns are shown for Class A shares only; after-tax returns for other share classes will vary. Your own actual after-tax returns will depend on your specific tax situation and may differ from what is shown here. After-tax returns are not relevant to investors who hold Fund shares in tax-deferred accounts such as IRAs or employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Both the bar chart and the table assume that all distributions have been reinvested. Performance reflects fee waivers, if any, in effect during the periods presented. If any such waivers had not been in place, returns would have been reduced.

You may purchase, redeem or exchange shares of the Fund on any business day, which is any day the New York Stock Exchange is open for business. You may purchase, redeem or exchange shares of the Fund either through a financial advisor or other financial intermediary or directly from the Fund. Class A and Class C shares may not be purchased directly from the Fund. In addition, the availability of Class A and Class C shares through a financial intermediary will depend on the policies of the intermediary. The Fund’s initial and subsequent investment minimums generally are as follows, although certain financial intermediaries may impose their own investment minimums and the Fund may reduce or waive the minimums in some cases:

The Fund’s distributions are taxable and will generally be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred account, such as an IRA or 401(k) plan (in which case you may be taxed upon withdrawal of your investment from such account).

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank or financial advisor), the Fund, its distributor or its investment adviser may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.


	Class A		Class C		Class R6		Class I
Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases (as a percentage of offering price)		3.00%		None		None		None
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (Load) (as a percentage of the lesser of purchase price or redemption proceeds)¹		None		1.00%		None		None
Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Reinvested Dividends		None		None		None		None
Exchange Fee		None		None		None		None
Annual Low Balance Account Fee (for accounts under $1,000)²		$15		$15		None		$15

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
	Class A		Class C		Class R6		Class I
Management Fees		0.47%		0.47%		0.47%		0.47%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees		0.25%		1.00%		0.00%		0.00%
Other Expenses		0.21%		0.21%		0.14%		0.21%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.93%		1.68%		0.61%		0.68%
Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements³		(0.15)%		(0.15)%		(0.15)%		(0.15)%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements		0.78%		1.53%		0.46%		0.53%


	Class A		Class C		Class R6		Class I
1 Year	$	377	$	156	$	47	$	54
3 Years	$	562	$	503	$	168	$	191
5 Years	$	774	$	887	$	314	$	352
10 Years	$	1,385	$	1,965	$	737	$	821


			Average Annual Total Returns for the Periods Ended December 31, 2016
	Inception Date		1 Year			5 Years			10 Years			Since Inception (Class C)			Since Inception (Class R6)
Class A (return before taxes)		1/09/95		(1.34	)%		1.49	%		3.47	%		N/A			N/A
Class A (return after taxes on distributions)				(2.19	)%		0.24	%		2.09	%		N/A			N/A
Class A (return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares)				(0.75	)%		0.75	%		2.21	%		N/A			N/A
Class C (return before taxes)		1/18/11		0.91	%		1.32	%		N/A			1.58	%		N/A
Class R6 (return before taxes)		1/20/15		2.00	%		N/A			N/A			N/A			0.03	%
Class I (return before taxes)		1/05/93		1.96	%		2.34	%		3.99	%		N/A			N/A
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index¹ (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)				2.65	%		2.23	%		4.34	%		3.15	%		0.94	%
Lipper Core Bond Funds Category Average² (reflects no deduction for taxes or sales loads)				3.00	%		2.41	%		3.94	%		3.08	%		0.88	%


Name	Title	Portfolio Manager of Fund Since
Wan-Chong Kung, CFA	Senior Vice President	October 2002
Jeffrey J. Ebert	Senior Vice President	February 2000
Jason J. O’Brien, CFA	Senior Vice President	March 2016


	Class A and Class C	Class R6	Class I
Eligibility and Minimum Initial Investment	$3,000 for all accounts except: • $2,500 for Traditional/Roth IRA accounts. • $2,000 for Coverdell Education Savings Accounts. • $250 for accounts opened through fee-based programs. • No minimum for retirement plans.	Available only to certain qualified retirement plans and other investors as described in the prospectus and through fee-based programs. $1 million for all accounts except: • $100,000 for clients of financial intermediaries who charge such clients an ongoing fee for advisory, investment, consulting or related services. • No minimum for certain qualified retirement plans and certain other categories of eligible investors as described in the prospectus.	Available only through fee-based programs and certain retirement plans, and to other limited categories of investors as described in the prospectus. $100,000 for all accounts except: • $250 for clients of financial intermediaries and family offices that have accounts holding Class I shares with an aggregate value of at least $100,000 (or that are expected to reach this level). • No minimum for eligible retirement plans and certain other categories of eligible investors as described in the prospectus.
Minimum Additional Investment	$100	No minimum.	No minimum.


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