Last week, I wrote that from a modern portfolio theory perspective, stocks actually become more risky with time (Obi-Wan Kenobi was right).  Because even small differences in returns can have monumental consequences to the eventual size of your nest egg, every little bit counts.  Mutual funds with high expense ratios are an unnecessary and outright harmful [...]

[Read more →]

The for-profit mutual fund industry has never been known for looking after their mutual fund investors’ best interests, but every once in a while a product so terrible (even by industy standards) you just have to sit up and notice.  Enter Morgan Stanley with an S&P 500 index fund so expensive it actually makes most [...]

[Read more →]

Legendary Sequoia fund reopened May 1st, 2008 after more than 25 years.  Since closing on December 21, 1982 Sequoia managers Ruane, Cunniff, and Goldfarb claim assets under management have declined from $5 billion to $3.8 billion, prompting the fund to reopen to new investors.  Buffett followers will recognize the Sequoia Fund as being the fund [...]

[Read more →]

As Hannah at The Penny Mine noted recently, most people are pretty bad at planning for intermediate-term goals.  Sure, these people will spend countless hours researching mutual funds for their IRA and call 15 banks in their area getting rate quotes on 6 month CDs, but when it comes to a new car fund for a purchase 7 [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier this month, Vanguard filed with the SEC to offer the Vanguard Global Stock Index Fund.  It will track the FTSE All-World Index, a market-cap-weighted index of large and mid-cap stocks all over the world.  It will be offered in both Investor and ETF share classes with expense ratios of 0.45% and 0.25%, respectively.
With approximately [...]

[Read more →]

Investing can be hard when you’re young and don’t have much money to invest.  Sure, companies like T Rowe Price will let you invest as little as $50 up front in an IRA if you promise to invest an additional $50 per month deducted automatically from your checking account, and if you can afford to do [...]

[Read more →]

There are probably plenty of four letter words that come to mind when you look over your mutual fund statement for the past few months, but there are also a couple of five letter words you should watch out for:  asset bloat.  No, it’s not what you get after eating too much mexican food, although [...]

[Read more →]

For most investors, beating the market is the holy grail of investing.  So few people manage to do it that those who do are elevated to the status of legends by the investment community.  How else could you explain the popularity of such stock-picking wizards as Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Bill Miller, and Marty Whitman?  [...]

[Read more →]

Venerable money management firm Dodge & Cox filed plans last week with the SEC to launch the new Dodge & Cox Global Stock fund, according to Morningstar.  Unlike most mutual fund companies that launch new funds in response to every investment fad in a greedy attempt to raise assets under management, this will be only the FIFTH [...]

[Read more →]

The mutual fund industry has a dirty little secret: the returns many fund companies advertise in the financial media and promotional materials are wrong. Well, not technically wrong but definitely misleading. Mutual fund companies love to quote their Average Annual Return numbers, which, not surprisingly, practically always over-state their funds’ actual returns. The difference comes [...]

[Read more →]