Posts tagged as:

stocks

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 [...]

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Cautiously Optimistic: Investing under Fire

June 5, 2010

The past week is something that should have been a surprise. The Dow Jones Total Market Index lost about $480 billion in total worth in a single day (Friday 06.04.10, when it fell 323.31 points, or 3.2%, to 9931.97 – turns out, it was the second close below 10,000 in two weeks and the third-biggest [...]

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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Taxes: Which Fund is Tax Friendly?

February 17, 2010

I just recently finished my portion of the household tax return for 2009. I was not that unpleasant a task as I broke even for the year. Some stocks made money while others lost enough to offset those gains. In other words, the best possible tax scenario took place: no gains, no tax consequence. But [...]

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Is Owning a Home No Longer Smart Money Management?

January 15, 2010

Seems that there isn’t a day goes past that I am not asked about the concept of buying a house.  These questions usually come from younger workers who may be barely into their thirties.  And the answer I offer them is not what they want to hear.  In fact, it flies in the face of [...]

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Your Company’s Stock as a Matching Contribution

January 12, 2010

Last week on MomsMakingaMillion, one of the the hosts, Gina Robison-Billups grabbed hold of one of the tips about how your 401(k) plan is structured: don’t own too much of your company’s stock in your retirement plan.  This is not a new problem for investors in these sorts of defined contribution plans. And even though [...]

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Once Upon a Time, Investors Panicked

December 16, 2009

Seems so long ago.  Markets were tumbling. People who owned stocks were selling and running for bonds. People who owned actively managed mutual funds were moving everything they had left to the uncharted and unproven territories that are target date funds or balanced offerings. No one seemed to know what to do or worse, how [...]

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The Curious Case of Mutual Fund Comparison: Performance

December 6, 2009

The last lines of Matthew P. Fink’s book, “The Rise of the Mutual Fund” suggest that although he is a “worrier; nonetheless, I am optimistic”.  This speaks volumes to the “extraordinary success of mutual funds”.  Mr. Fink believes that despite the speculation about the maturity of the industry, it is far from falling from its [...]

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Your 401(k): Do’s and Don’ts

September 26, 2009

Your 401(k) is in trouble.  While the concept of a self-directed retirement plan is, at least in theory a good idea, it was never meant to be all there is.  So many components go into a the proper operation of such plans, it is hard to get a bead on which move is right and [...]

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