Smart Saving Investing

Category: Mutual Funds

  • Asset Allocation

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    When selecting mutual funds for your investment portfolio there is one attribute of your portfolio you should consider and that is asset allocation. Here are some ways to think of asset allocation and the various types. Conservative Asset Allocation – This type of allocation puts you in more conservative funds for your investment style. When…

  • What is Diversification?

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    Are you diversified? What is Diversification? In the context of this blog, diversification has to do with your portfolio. Yea but what’s a portfolio? View a portfolio as a big empty box. We’ll put stuff in this empty box to make up our portfolio. Let’s pick one mutual fund and take a look inside. We’ll…

  • The 5 Asset Classes Every Portfolio Should Have

    —

    by

    Bill
    in ,

    Here are The Five Core Asset Classes Every Portfolio Should Have: Large Growth – Large Company Growth Large Value – Large Company Value Small Growth – Small Company Growth Small Value – Small Company Value International In addition to that you might add some of the following depending on your investment goals: Bond Funds Balanced…

  • What is an Index Fund?

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    To describe an Index Fund I’ll use the classic Vanguard 500 Index fund, symbol VFINX. The VFINX fund is made up of stock in the 500 companies that the S&P 500 tracks. You would own a piece of all the 500 companies in the S&P 500. 🙂 The S&P stands for Standard and Poor’s. Standard…

  • What is a Mutual Fund?

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    So what is a Mutual Fund anyway? There are many ways to answer this question but here are a few definitions from some excellent sources: “A mutual fund is a form of collective investments that pools money from many investors and invests their money in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities. In…

  • How to Select Mutual Funds

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    When you sign up for your employer’s retirement plan and it allows you to select mutual funds, you could be presented with a laundry list of mutual funds or a very limited choice of mutual funds. So what do we do? We ask friends and possibly relatives for advice and go to Smart Saving and…

  • Big Trucks, Small Parking Lot

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    When you have a big fund it’s harder for the fund manager to maneuver. For example, a pretty darn good fund in the Fidelity family of funds is the Contrafund. However, it’s become rather large at greater than 70 billion dollars in assets. So, the fund becomes representative of the market. If the market goes…

  • Bad Timing

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    When I started contributing to my employer’s retirement plan there were a few fund companies with quite a few funds to pick from. At the time there was an excellent book out by Peter Lynch called “Beating The Street”. Peter Lynch managed the Fidelity Magellan mutual fund until 1990 and returned huge gains. His successors…

  • Mutual Fund Investing

    —

    by

    Bill
    in

    Here are some rules guidelines to follow when investing in mutual funds: Invest in no-load funds that will beat the index funds in good times and won’t lose as much in the bad times. Index funds are ok. Index funds will do what the market does. You will make what the market makes and you…