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Essay On Mutual Fund

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Maybe you won't find the single best mutual fund investment for 2015, but you can get hooked up with some of the best funds around if you know what to look for. We're talking about both the stock and bond variety here, and if you think that the best funds for 2015 will be those with the best mutual fund investment management team - think again.
These packaged investments are large professionally managed portfolios of securities (like stocks and bonds) where investors pool money by buying shares. They all charge for their services and claim to offer great service and some of the best funds around. Some tout past investment performance, claiming to have the best mutual fund investment team in the business. In the years leading up to 2015, …show more content…

But you can control one major factor that directly affects both fund performance and your net returns for 2015 and beyond: the cost of investing.
The best funds for the past few years have been no-load "index funds". These are passively managed to simply mimic the performance of major stock and bond indexes vs. trying to outperform them. Since time has vindicated the fact that actively managed funds DO NOT significantly outperform over the longer term, why pay an upfront sales charge (load) of 5% (or more) to invest, and/or 2% or more in ongoing expenses and fees every year for active management? The best mutual fund investment keeps costs low, and never underperforms its benchmark, which is an index.
The cost of investing can be less than ½% per year for expenses. Period. Now let's get more specific about the best funds for 2015 and beyond. The best mutual fund investment for stocks: one with no load (sales charge) that tracks a major stock index like the S&P 500 Index. This will perform right in line with the market as measured by the same index that actively managed competitors try to beat (and usually can't due to their high cost of active management).
The best mutual fund investment in the bond arena: one with no load and mid-to-high quality that tracks an intermediate-term bond index. Think of bond funds (which people buy for the dividend income) like this: if you pay a 3% load (sales charge) upfront to buy it and 1% a

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