Mutual Fund
Understanding Mutual Funds In The Newspaper
We’ve all seen the financial pages in the newspaper. Usually we flip past it on the way to the comics, the horoscope, of if you’re like me, to the sports section. But what do all those squiggles and arrows mean anyway, and now that you’re thinking about investing in mutual funds, can you see how your fund is doing every day in the morning paper?
The answer is, of course, yes. And not only that but mutual fund listing are a bit easier to read with less complicated jargon that reading the stock prices next to it. Most major daily newspapers have the mutual fund section separate form the rest of the stock and bond information. There is usually a large, bold headline showing where the fund are listed.
Now that you’ve found where the mutual funds are listed, let’s try to decode all this information. Your fund will be listed alphabetically in the column under the name of the company that manages it. You’ll see three column next to each fund name. In the first column, you’ll see “NAV”. This is short for “Net Asses Value.” Don’t panic, this is just a simple mathematical formula that shows what each share in that mutual fund is worth. To determine how much your shares in that mutual fund are worth, just multiply the amount of shares in that fund that you own by the NAV.
The second column says Offer Price. This is what you would pay right now if you wanted to buy more shares. Often, you’ll see a NL in this column instead of a price. I bet you can figure out what that means. Yep! It means it’s a no-load fund and you would pay what the NAV is if you wanted to buy more shares. Not so scary anymore, is it?
The final column is the change column. This information is the same essential thing that you would see if you were reading the stock page: a + in this column shows that the value of your fund has gone up since the last day’s close, and a – shows that it’s gone down.
And that’s it! While the mutual fund page in your newspaper may look bizarre, once you break it all down you can see that it’s all pretty basic. So start checking your funds today and you can watch your money grow!
Types Of Mutual Funds
So, you’ve decided to jump into the mutual fund investment game. While mutual funds have shown themselves over time to be a safer bet than regular stock trading, there is always the chance you could lose your shirt. But the type of fund you choose will have a lot to do with the amount of risk you take on and the kind of return you’re looking for. For starters, mutual funds are usually broken down into six main categories.
- Equity mutual funds allow you to invest in typical shares of common, everyday stock.
- Fixed income mutual funds allow you to invest in corporate or government securities that usually offer a set rate of return on your investment.
- Balanced mutual funds allow the investor to take on a fund that includes both stock and bond options.
- Maybe the safest form of mutual funds are known as money market mutual funds. They offer a high degree of stability for your principal, as well as high liquidity if you need to back out.
- Bond mutual funds are popular since they invest in tax free as well as taxable ones.
- And finally, sector/speciality funds are used to help diversify your holdings within a particular industry.
Each of these types of funds can be both aggressive and risky with a high level of reward possible, or they can be safer and lower risk. It all depends on which fund you choose.
To break things down further, equity funds are usually divided up into four different categories: Growth and Income mutual funds, International mutual funds, growth mutual funds and aggressive growth mutual funds. Each different type of fund has a particular goal in mind. For some, it’s to aggressively pursue income, even in risky situations, while others seek to preserve the initial investment and only take smaller chances.
As you can see, the mutual fund landscape is filled with so many options, it can make a newbie’s head spin. But fear not, there is almost limitless information available on which mutual fund is right for your particular investment strategy. Not only do most mutual funds and those that run them have their own website, there is endless advice as to which fund is right for you on the Internet, as well. Don’t forget to utilize publications like the Wall Street Journal, as well as friends and family who might have had particular luck with a specific fund. Welcome to mutual fund investing!
Tips To Invest For Retirement
People choose mutual funds for investing for many different reasons. Some people start very early (the smart ones) with dreams of a second house in the German Alps or a thatched roof pub in the English countryside. For some, mutual funds are a practical and easy way to save for the college education of their kids, or even grandkids. But without a doubt, the most popular reason for mutual fund investing is saving for retirement. With social security looking less and less helpful, many realize that investing to save for retirement isn’t a choice anymore, but a must. Here are some tips for those that are looking ahead to their golden years with mutual fund investing.
First off, the earlier you start saving for retirement, the better. Convincing a 25 year old recent college graduate that they need to put some of their income away to save for college can be almost impossible, but trust us, the sooner you start, the better off you’ll be.
Take a financial inventory of your life. If you have several retirement accounts from jobs you’ve had since you were 30, you can easily combine them now into one savings account. You can also figure in the value of your home, your possessions and your savings to get an idea of how much net worth you have and how that can relate to your ability to save for retirement.
While this may sound like a basic idea, setting goals in a big part of saving for retirement. Get together with a financial expert and decide what age you want to retire at and how much money you’ll need per year and how long you expect to be retired for. Knowing all this will help you plan long term for your retirement.
Try to open an emergency account. This account, which should be all cash, can be for emergencies that you may face while you’re trying to save for your retirement. The main purpose is that in case something goes wrong, you won’t take the money you’ve been saving for your retirement out and use it. That money needs to be kept where it is so you can keep marching towards your retirement goals.
While saving for retirement can be difficult, using various investment tools including mutual funds can really help. Combine that with solid advice from your broker and you will be well on your way to celebrating your retirement years in style.
Tax And Distributions
Most investors would agree that mutual funds are a great way to help create a nest egg, save for retirement or for your kids’ college education. There are, however, an entire series of taxes that are levied against investments of all kinds, including mutual fund investments. While they may not always seem fair, they are a fact of life and the more you know about all the various forms of taxes, the better prepared you’ll be to deal with them.
While there are fees associated with some mutual funds when you open the account, and taxes for capital gains as the money appreciates within the mutual fund, there are also a series of taxes associated with the distribution of earnings from the mutual fund back to you. These distributions can take on several different forms, such as capital gains, income dividends and interest. A mutual fund is legally obligated to give out all of the investors income and the money that the fund made. But what exactly is an income dividend?
Income dividends usually include dividends, capital gains and interest that is earned by the mutual fund company minus the expenses and fees are taken out. The distribution associated with capital gains is usually made once per year to the shareholders. These capital gains come from a year of good performance by the mutual fund. When a mutual fund company pays out dividends to their shareholders, the NAV or net asset value of your mutual fund will go down, but you can also take that dividend pay out and buy more shares if you’re happy with the performance.
There are ways to help avoid the tax liability of reinvesting your dividends back into your mutual fund. Most distributions done by mutual fund companies is done near the end of the year. If you don’t want to spend the payout on Christmas presents, you can reinvest the money, but you should do it after the record date. This will help you avoid extra tax liability on your dividends.
Paying taxes on your distribution is a pain. But if your mutual fund is performing well, a small tax on your earning won’t hurt so bad. This is another reason why intelligent, well managed investing is so important. Not only do you have to worry about your fund going up and down in price, but also tax liability. That’s why it pays to invest wisely and use a disciplined approach.
Selecting A Mutual Fund
When you first get into investing, you have to have a clear idea of what it is you want to accomplish. Most people have long term financial goals like saving for retirement or saving for a second home or maybe to put the kids through college. You also have a time frame. You have 20 years to make this money, or if you get into investing at a younger age, you could have 40 or 50 years to spend investing before your goal comes due. These are all vitally important questions that you need to have answered before you start investing. They will tell you what sort of fund to select for your portfolio. Here are a few general tips for selecting a fund that’s right for you.
If your goal is to have the most growth to your capital that you can get, than an aggressive growth mutual fund or an international growth mutual fund is for you. These kind of mutual funds invest in stocks that are hot and have a great potential for hitting it big. The chance for your capital to increase is very high, but the risk involved in these stocks is also extremely high. They are only recommended for long-term investors who can afford to take a hit if need be.
If you’re looking for a high amount of capital growth, but you aren’t ready for that degree of risk, try growth mutual funds, specialty or sector mutual funds or international mutual funds. They tend to look more towards long-term success in common stock, not a quick hit. The risk is still considered high with these mutual funds, but it’s not as high as the previous option.
If your goals are a bit different and creating current income is a big part of what you want to do, than growth and income mutual funds are right for you. The risk level with these mutual funds are ranked high to moderate and they invest in common stocks with a good possibility for dividends and appreciation of your capital.
If your main goal is to create a high amount of current income and capital appreciation isn’t a concern, then fixed income mutual funds and equity income mutual funds would be the right choice. The risk is considered moderate to low, but the potential for current income is very high.
Selecting the right mutual fund for you is a very important decision. You must have a clear idea of your goals to make the right choice. Once you know your position, you can be well on your way to enjoying success in mutual fund investing.
History of mutual funds
For many investors, the choice of possible investments can be overwhelming. There are stocks, bonds, commodities, securities and lots of other choices. One of the most popular choices is mutual funds. These diverse and complex investments have become one of the most popular ways to invest and Americans have been taking part in mutual fund investing for many, many years.
The first ever mutual fund, known as the Massachusetts Investors Trust was born in 1924, but the idea of a group of investors pooling their money together for one big investment goes back even farther. Evidence of this style of investing can be traced back to Europe in the mid-1800s. The staff and faculty at Harvard University were the first group to do it in the United States in 1893. It was this group investment that went on to become the very first mutual fund in US history.
To say that this first mutual fund was successful would be an understatement. The fund, which started out with 200 investors and a starting point of $50,000 dollars, grew to a value of almost $400,000 in the matter of a single year. If only every investor could get that kind of return!
To compare those numbers to today, there are approximately 10,000 different mutual funds available right now, representing 83 million investors inside the United States, making mutual fund investing one of the most popular and wide-spread forms of investing in the US.
The rules of investing in mutual funds changed dramatically after the great stock market crash of 1929. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) was born, and with the help of two key pieces of legislation, the Securities Act of 1933 as well as The Securities Exchange Act of 1934,the government would take a pivotal role in trying to protect potential investors from getting ripped off. The SEC requires that companies file their financial information with them, so that investors can see which companies are healthy and are ready to grow, and which companies to stay away from.
The creation of the SEC did wonders for consumer confidence in mutual funds, and by the 1960’s the mutual fund market had exploded. There were an estimated 270 different mutual funds that anyone could invest in with a value of about $48 million dollars.
As you can see, mutual fund investing has had its ups and downs, and while a well run mutual fund is likely to make money, remember, there are no sure things in the investment world and you should always be careful when trusting someone with your hard earned money.
Don’t Chase The Best Funds
If you ask a seasoned mutual fund investor what the three biggest keys to successful investing are, he or she is bound to say discipline, discipline and discipline. What does that mean, exactly? It means avoiding the temptation to react with the news.
A common behaviour by many new investors is that when they hear on the news that a particular stock or mutual fund is poised to explode, they run to their computers or cell phones and switch over every penny in investments that they have to this new hot stock. While this practice can work some of the time, if it worked all of the time without fail, investing would be a lot easier and everyone would be doing it.
Discipline is the practice of sticking with your advised investment plan, even if a more tempting offer comes along. When you first start to invest, you should have a good idea of your risk profile, your short and long term goals and the amount of money you’re able to invest. You should pick a fund that meets all of those criteria and then settle in for the long haul. The only way to make a lot of money with mutual funds is to trust that they will give you the returns you desire, and stick with it.
There are times, however, when sticking with a fund may not be a good idea. If your fund is haemorrhaging money and has been for months, you may want to switch to a more stable mutual fund. But you can’t switch over your money with every bump and swerve in the market. Not only will fees and taxes eat your principle up, you’ll have no long term plan to help you invest and meet your goals.
The two biggest demons you have to deal with are fear and greed. Both of which are valid human emotions, but both can get in the way of logical, disciplined mutual fund investing. If you can manage both your greed and your fear, you can stay away from the lemming-over-the-cliff mentality that grips so many other investors. Mutual fund investing is one case where you do want to stay the course.
Temptation is a scary thing in all aspects of life. The temptation to run to the smoking hot and fashionable mutual fund of the week is extremely high, so high in fact that many investors take it like a month to a flame. If you don’t want to get burned, avoid the investment tips from your friends and use discipline as your number one investment strategy.
Determining Reward vs. Risk
The concept of risk versus reward is the basis for not only mutual fund investing, but investing altogether. The same system of risk versus reward can be translated to almost every part of life. When you analyze a situation, you can determine the possible risks of doing something and then the possible rewards of doing something and decide what the best course of action is for you. Determining your risk versus reward strategy for mutual fund investing is key.
The first thing investors of all stripes need to learn is that while mutual funds are a fun, exciting and easy way to invest, there is always a chance, no matter how slim, that you could lose every single penny you invest. That is one kind of risk. The other kind is the risk of not meeting your investing goals that you have set for yourself. This is a tightrope that every investor must walk, determining your risk while trying to earn the reward.
The risk associated with investing can be caused by many different factors. Things like general economic conditions, the rising or falling of interest rates and inflation are just a few factors that can cause a stock or a mutual fund to rise or fall. One of the best parts about mutual funds is that the risk involved in each fund is clearly stated BEFORE you invest. If you’re just looking to make a few dollars for holiday shopping, you can do that and keep your risk very low. If you are 25 and have a whole lifetime to invest for your retirement, there are mutual funds that can help you take big chances with even bigger rewards. If you lose your money, it’s not as big of a deal since you have your whole life to make it back.
Maybe the best advice you can take when analyzing risk versus reward is the fact that every stock, every bond and, yes, every mutual fund will fluctuate. This is an inarguable truism in the world of investing. There may be a few times when you sit down with your morning paper and you need two antacids with your morning coffee because your fund lost a few points. But with smart investing and good advice, you’ll have far more mornings where you leave for work with a smile on your face because your fund is doing well.
Analyzing risk versus reward is a huge part of investing and if you are having trouble figuring out how much risk to take, ask for help. You don’t want to enter into investing with a blurry picture of your risk vs. reward. The more you know about your personal situation, the better off you’ll be.
Criticism Of Mutual Funds
While mutual fund investing has exploded over the past 50 years to become one of the most popular forms of investing anywhere, there are still possible pitfalls that you can fall into if you’re not careful. Investing is still a risky business, even if everyone is doing it. Here are some tips to help you through any problems you might have.
One common criticism of mutual fund investing is that they don’t have a high enough return on their investment and that index funds, which aren’t as popular have historically returned a higher investment than the much more popular actively managed mutual funds.
A second common problem that some have with mutual fund investing is the use of load funds. You have probably seen the phrase “no-load mutual fund” in the newspaper or on television. The reason the no-load type of fund is preferred is because load funds come loaded with fees. These fees can run anywhere between half a percent, all the way up to 8.5 percent of however much you chose to invest. It’s thought that these fees are a clear conflict of interest as they clearly benefit the people making the sale and hurt the person making the investment. Load mutual funds are also thought to make your broker recommend funds that will maximize his fee, and not your investment portfolio.
Some investors also point to a perceived conflict of interest in regards to the size of the mutual fund. Most companies that manage the mutual fund charge a fee of between half a percent up to two and a half percent of the total amount of the funds assets. It’s thought that this fee could cause a fund to spend more on advertising than is actually needed so that they can get more people to invest in the fund and maximize their fee as much as possible.
The mutual fund market isn’t immune to scandals, either. In 2003, a scandal involving the practice of unethical and dishonest trading practices. Many funds were found to have participated in late trading and market trimming, both of which are illegal practices. You obviously don’t want to invest in a mutual fund that is engaged in illegal activities.
Mutual fund investing is gaining in popularity on an almost weekly basis, and a few bad eggs in the business won’t ruin it for everyone. However, it is always good advice to enter into any kind of investing with your eyes open, and if you feel your mutual fund is behaving improperly, there are authorities you can report them to.
College vs. Retirement
For most people, investing in mutual funds is pretty straight forward. You have specific goals that need to be met. You and your partner are approaching mutual fund investing with your eyes open and you’re both on the same page. Granted, she may want that pretty cottage down by the lake and you want that new speedboat, but both your goals involve water, and that’s close enough for you. But what if you’re in a completely different boat? What if you know you need to invest, but you have two equally important goals pulling you two different ways? This is the case with thousands of parents who see the need to save for retirement but also want to save for the kids’ college education. How can you do both at the same time? Here are a few tips.
One of the biggest factors in the college vs. retirement battle is the fact that people are putting off having kids until later in life these days. Fifty years ago, this wasn’t the case, and saving for both college and retirement usually happened during two distinctly different phases in one’s life. These days, now that we realize that saving for retirement is something that should be started when you’re 18, not 48, the two overlap more than ever.
The gut instinct of most parents is to put the kids’ future ahead of their own and cut back on retirement savings in favour of college. While this is a popular choice, it really only should be a last resort. A technique that is becoming more and more popular with parents who face saving for both at once is offering your prospective college student the chance to get matching funds from you. This is simply the idea that for every dollar they pay for, you’ll match it. If your not sure how junior will pay for half, remember, there are many ways for teenagers to save for college themselves. Almost everyone qualifies for student loans, there are scholarships for good grades as well as an after school and summertime job. Most college students work while they are attending classes, as well.
While walking the tightrope of saving for two goals at once can be stressful, a logical and determined approach to the situation is really the only way to go. Choosing retirement over your kids’ education isn’t a “wrong” choice, and neither is choosing college over retirement. Everyone’s situation is different and you need to make the right choice for your situation.
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