With an eye out for the best equity mutual funds on the market, it makes sense that we might want to look at past performance as a way to not only measure up our 2011 Watch List, but to see whether what we say here at the Site really holds any value for our readers. [...]
Everyone thought that the simplest way to build wealth was through home ownership. Real property in the US became such a huge vehicle to wealth building that consumers were able to spend beyond their means (as measured by their income levels) and refinance their debt. Rinse and repeat. This type of leveraged purchasing behavior allowed [...]
Target Date Mutual Funds have recently taken on a lot of bad press. That terrible year, 2008, did not help; many people with 2010 target-dated funds saw big losses. Stories of postponed retirements, massive wealth loss, even broken financial dreams filled the press. We all read about them. And to be honest even we have [...]
Not too long ago, we suggested that the future of mutual funds would see a sharp increase in the demand for income funds. This demand will result in greater pressure for fund managers who will need to seek yields elsewhere since bond yields, as low as they have been and may remain in the near [...]
People invest in mutual funds for many different reasons, but one of them can simply stated in the following: they want the funds to excel during periods of market strength and to water-down losses when markets soften. This is perhaps even more true with balanced funds, even moderate allocation balanced funds like the Vanguard Wellington [...]
In a recent Bloomberg piece, investment billionaire Ken Fisher called the “new normal” “idiotic.” The new normal he refers to is the one that suggests that US economy will have less relevance in a global playing field. And by idiot, what Ken Fisher is saying is that the US economy will remain a global powerhouse [...]
Vanguard dividend funds are known for quality, the same way that the name Mercedes Benz is known for quality in automotive circles. The same is true for the Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund (VWINX); top notch performance that is a worthy and powerful competitor to any other dividend funds or income funds. Vanguard Dividend Funds Are [...]
Mutual funds serve a great need. This much is obvious when one looks at the total assets under management that many of these mutual funds are responsible for turning into profit and distributions. But what a lot of market observers quickly notice is that the most popular funds are those that provide an income with [...]
As a bond fund and dividend fund alternative, indecisive investors might be wise to start looking at balanced funds. The reason why some balanced funds might be so appealing is that a properly managed balanced fund will achieve the best of both worlds – income generation from the fixed income holdings and growth from the [...]
The markets are down, making mutual funds all that much more important for risk averse investors. That is not to say stocks do not have their place, but the reason I love mutual funds so much is because they offer so much diversification (some would argue over-diversification) that risk becomes somewhat limited. So what does [...]
Education savings plans have increased in popularity over the past decade or so. As people have struggled with savings for their children’s education, so too have they struggled with where to invest the money they set aside every week, month or year. But interestingly, they struggle less when it comes to the mutual funds that [...]
There are times when, as an individual investor, I have to shake my head at some of the bonehead positions that even the world’s best mutual fund managers take. Whether it is an equity fund, a bond fund or balanced fund, evne those people who are known as the world’s “greatest” mutual fund managers make [...]
Investment management is one of those things that crosses many investment territories, from a basic term deposit laddering strategy to a more complicated mutual fund investment strategy to complex, corporate strategies involving bought deals, derivatives and other exotic investment vehicles. But ultimately, investment management can be broken down into two simple camps: Strategic Investment Management [...]
If you have the problem of not knowing where to invest $10,000, you have a problem that many people would love to have. But not knowing where to invest is not the true problem; it is a symptom of the problem of not knowing enough about investments and the optimal investment vehicles. While some people [...]
Insofar as mutual funds are concerned, balanced funds are those all-encompassing funds that can meet an array of investment management requirements. In many cases, people who are new to investments and want to know where to invest with the least amount of risk while still enjoying an accurately built asset allocation model will start out [...]
