I'm new to 'mutual funds'. Pl tell me how to invest in it?

Answer 1

The best mutual funds to buy are no-load, low expense funds. I like Vanguard.com, other people like Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, and DFA. If you are like most people you will invest part of your money conservatively, in money market funds and bond funds, and part aggressively in stock funds. Vanguard.com has an on-line questionnaire which will give you an idea how aggressive you want to be.

I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop in value. They also have the lowest expenses. For stock funds, I would suggest putting ~70-80% of your money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~20-30% in a foreign stock index fund.

Investing in a mutual fund IRA for retirement may give you an income tax break. Talk to your tax adviser. You may also be able to invest in a mutual fund via a 401K plan at work.

Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however.

http://www.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation
http://finance.yahoo.com/funds
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/scottburns/columns/2007/vitindex.html
http://www.fool.com/school.htm
http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetallocation.htm
https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/FundsInvQuestionnaire?cbdInitTransUrl=https%3A//flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation/education

Answer 2

I ABSOLUTELY agree with Gregory. Although, depending on how much you are putting into the fund or how much you are willing to risk are also things you need to consider. If you are very low risk and you have a bit more to put into something (around 100k or more), you could put it into a Municipal Bond ladder and make interest that is Federal and State tax free and relatively safe. On the flip side, if you are more aggressive, you may way to consider a mutual fund. Most important thing to know before you get into an equity position (stock, mutual fund, option)..............figure out what the trend is. If it's going up, chances are good that that company (or fund) is growing for a reason. The institutional investors (like banks, etc) are the ones that move the stock, not small investors like us. They trade million, even billions of dollars in each company they decide to invest money into. They do a ton of research to make sure that company if fundamentally going somewhere. If it doesn't meet their expectations, they dump it which in turn, make the stock go down in price by selling its millions of dollars worth of shares. That's why trend is so important and lots of people just get too emotionally involved with a certain company and just watch it go down. Make sure you aren't one of them. Good luck!

Answer 3

Basically you can go online and find mutual funds there. There are many companies out there. The most popular ones are Fidelity, Van Kampen, Oppenheimer, Legg Mason, Vanguard, American Funds, Putnam Funds, and Franklin/Templeton Funds.

Before investing, you should do an investment analysis on yourself and many companies will do that for free. This analysis is to evaluate your risk to the market fluctuations. From these results, you or a financial representative can help you choose the appropriate mutual funds that meets your objective.

You should carefully read the prospectus of that mutual fund before putting your money in it. Most people don't want to since there is so many words and numbers and tables. Its really not that hard to read. Just go one page at a time and you will get a basic understand of a mutual fund.

After you pick a mutual fund, you should decide on whether you want to keep it outside of a individual retirement account (IRA) or put it in. If you keep it outside of the IRA, any gains, dividends, and interest you receive in any given year, you will pay taxes on them. If there is a realize loss, you may be able to make that loss as tax-deductible on your tax return.

If you keep it in an IRA, all your investments grows tax-deferred. There are two types of IRA, one is called Traditional IRA and the other is called Roth IRA. In Traditional IRA, the rules on making tax-deductions on your contributions is tricky. The IRS explains this at this site: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p590/ Anyway, if you make any withdrawals at anytime, they will be taxed except on the contributions you didn't make tax-deductible.

In Roth IRAs, none of your contributions are tax-deductible and your income must be below a certain limit to qualify for a Roth IRA. After age 59 1/2, any withdrawals you make are tax-free.

In both IRAs, if you make any withdrawals before age 59 1/2, you are subject to a 10% penalty. There are exceptions to that rule such as using up to $10,000 to purchase or rebuild your first home, paying for higher education, or paying for health insurance while being unemployed.

Answer 4

80% of the mutual funds either meet or can't beat the SP 500. Your best bet is to buy the ETF SPY which tracks the SP 500 or DIA which tracks the Dow Jones average. You can also place a stop loss order on ETFs that help protect you from an uncomfortable (you set the comfort level buy placing the sell price under the going price so when it hit's the price you placed it will trigger a sale) loss in the day (although it doesn't trigger from a lower opening price). You can't place a stop loss on a mutual fund not to mention that the buying and selling of a mutual fund is based on the end of the day price.

Answer 5

If you got a big newstand in your area, look for Kiplinger's 2007 Mutual Fund Report....it just came out. What a lot of info!
Answers all the what? why? how do I ? and compares about 2000 different funds
I'm not sure but you may even try: http://www.Kiplinger.com
and see if you can get SOME info on-line.
Yup, just checked myself...about halfway down on the left side...THAT ad for the " special issue" That's what you're looking for!...good luck

Answer 6

mutual funds are priced based upon underlying assets i.e scrips which MF cos buy in different sectors.. better to judge a MF based upon how diversified is its investing... what is the trend of the securities it deals in... what period the market is in... a boom period is presumed to be high risk period for MF's.. you can follow the prices of sectors & stock that a MF has invested.. see market indicators for the same and decide

Answer 7

Be careful in mutual funds, a CD would be better or an annuity.

Answer 8

Open a brokerage account at TD Ameritrade.

Answer 9

you can read at http//www.swisscash.biz or email to me at duitbuatduit@yahoo