Posts tagged as:

index funds

What Happens When ETFs are Actively Managed?

July 13, 2010

For most of us, the exchange traded fund is an index fund dressed up like a stock.  It trades actively on the exchange.  Investors can purchase the fund throughout the day and many of these ame investors have found this security a good place to follow trends.  My only real concern with ETFs as they [...]

Read the full article →

Blind Obedience: Following Another’s Investment Lead

June 30, 2010

There are a couple of things we know about the stock market, which is still the primary generator of wealth and retirement income.  The question is whether you follow what you know or follow what might happen. First among these facts is that although the price you see quoted at any given moment is based [...]

Read the full article →

Making the Financially Clueless More So

June 29, 2010

By now, most of my regular readers know what I do not like in the world of financial products. The annuity galls me (a mix of insurance and mutual funds that doesn’t do either well), the ETF (which mimics the indexed mutual fund but allows you to trade it just like a stock and pay [...]

Read the full article →

ETFs: The Big Maybe in Retirement Planning

June 3, 2010

There is no doubt that ETFs are less expensive than mutual funds. They are a great many other things that mutual funds are not as well and investors who may now find this tool in their 401(k) plan should know what these big “maybes” are. An ETFs acts like a mutual fund index. In fact, [...]

Read the full article →

Volatile Investing and Your Retirement Plan

May 23, 2010

Does the past week in the stock market make you wonder about your retirement plan? Does the recent bumpy ride that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the Standard & Poors 500 experienced make your breath hitch in your throat giving you pause and the opportunity to rethink what you are doing? Or are [...]

Read the full article →

An Unfair Comparison: ETFs and Mutual Funds

April 29, 2010

If you wonder whether the comparisons most often made between ETFs (exchange traded funds) and mutual funds are done without bias, you would be wrong.  To understand why these traded index funds continue sell their attributes based on cost alone is to miss the point.  While they do have very low fees, as all passively [...]

Read the full article →

So You Want Conservative Investments?

April 8, 2010

Those of you have read what I have written in the past understand that my crusade against the word saving when in fact investing should be used. I have felt that much of the dismay retirement investors felt was based on the misconception that their money was somehow safe, losses were what the other guy [...]

Read the full article →

Target Date Funds: When Losing Gains Praise

March 16, 2010

These days, retirement investing is beginning to resemble a game of horseshoes.  Close enough is often considered good if the distance to where you want to be and where your investments are is not too far off.  But horseshoes, when played by yourself, is just practice.  And when you think close enough is good enough, [...]

Read the full article →

Is it Socially Responsible to Outperform? Absolutely!

January 25, 2010

Back in October of 2009, I re-profiled socially responsible mutual funds.  They are not available to me in my 401(k) so frequent monitoring of these important investments are not usually are my investment radar.  That is unfortunate, because they should. As it turns out, investing in socially responsible funds would have done the investor a [...]

Read the full article →

The Downside of Passively Investing

January 7, 2010

The downside of passively investing, such as in index funds, may have cost you dearly over the past year. While you did well, with gains in your retirement portfolio helping ease your concern, had you been in actively managed mutual funds, you would have done better. Juliet Ellis, chief investment officer for U.S. growth investing [...]

Read the full article →