DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
Rational selection of equity and bond mutual funds and ETFs – An Overview Given the extremely large variety and number of available fixed income and equity investment mutual funds and ETFs, investors need a rational basis to select among them. Without scientific selection criteria and a good understanding of which factors are more or less […]
What is the most effective strategy you have to increase your long-term mutual fund and ETF investment returns? Just reduce your investment fees to rock bottom and buy directly to eliminate all sales loads. This strategy is both simple and entirely within your control. You do not have to be smarter than all those other […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and ETFs on the most important economic factors affecting long term diversified stock or equity investment fund performance. This article explains the investment fund maturity and operating efficiency factors. <<– Go to Part 2 Family Financial Planning Software Parts 1 and 2 of this article discussed the first three, […]
Fund Authority Scores rate stock mutual funds and ETFs on the most important economic factors affecting long term diversified equity investment fund performance. This article explains how historical fund performance is calculated. <<– Go to Part 1 Go to Part 3 –>> Financial Planning Software for Home Use Part 1 of this article discussed direct […]
Fund Authority Scores range from -10 to +10 and measure five factors for diversified stock or equity investment funds: 1) annualized management and sales expenses, 2) trading costs, 3) historical performance, 4) fund maturity, and 5) operating efficiency. Go to Part 2 –>> This article explains how Fund Authority Scores rate stock or equity mutual […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and ETFs on the most important economic factors influencing long term diversified investment fund performance The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise and objective mutual fund and ETF comparisons within investment asset classes. Find Home Financial Planning Software Fund Authority Scores […]
During the last twenty-five years of the 20th century, mutual fund and exchange traded fund portfolio assembly costs declined dramatically. Brokerage commissions were deregulated in 1975, and transaction costs have fallen very dramatically since then. Furthermore, well-diversified, low-cost index mutual funds have now become commonplace, while none existed in 1968. The mutual fund industry was […]
For holding periods of many years, diversification improves dramatically, when you hold multiple actively-managed mutual funds in an investment portfolio. In “How Many Mutual Funds Constitute a Diversified Mutual Fund Portfolio?,” Professor Edward O’Neal of the University of New Hampshire at Durham tackled the important question of how much an investor could improve on diversification […]
Actively-managed mutual funds are not created equally. Performance can vary significantly – even when funds pursue similar strategies or “styles.” This article addresses the impact on portfolio diversification of holding more than one actively-managed mutual fund. (For the companion article to this, see: How many mutual funds are needed for a well-diversified portfolio? – a […]
10 Lower Cost S&P 500 Index Mutual Funds Regular readers know that The Skilled Investor advocates a very boring, low cost, broad market, passive index investment strategy. Costs less. Gets the broad market return — whatever that will be. Narrows the range of outcomes and therefore the risk to your long-term personal financial plan. Takes […]
Never invest solely because of superior past mutual fund or ETF performance Superior past fund performance does NOT predict superior future performance. Summary: A previous article, “The Solution – ONLY follow financial strategies that are scientific, passive, diversified, savings focused, risk controlled, low cost, and tax efficient,†suggested that individuals are much better off with […]
Searching for superior investment fund managers is a waste of your money and time A previous article, “The Solution – ONLY follow financial strategies that are scientific, passive, diversified, savings focused, risk controlled, low cost, and tax efficient,†suggested that individuals are much better off with a well-considered financial viewpoint. A stable set of financial […]
Own Investment Mutual Funds and ETFs – Not Individual Securities Owning individual stock and bond securities is just a big waste of your valuable time and money Individual investors tend to be terrible investment portfolio managers. Almost everyone can hire an index fund manager to do a much better job for far less time, money, […]
John C. Bogle’s Blog and his article about ETFs This article is a heads-up to people interested in investment blogs and personal finance blogs. John C. Bogle, the founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., has a blog called The Bogle eBlog. (If you are wondering about “eBlog,” it is an anagram of Bogle.) Mr. Bogle […]
Screening index mutual funds on-line with IndexUniverse.com In this article, The Skilled Investor discusses how to screen index mutual funds on-line. This article focuses on using the free index mutual fund screener and database available at IndexUniverse.com. We also discuss how to apply our seven scientifically based mutual fund screening criteria. Financial Planning Software for […]
Screening mutual funds on-line with Morningstar.com Summary: In this article, The Skilled Investor discusses how to screen mutual funds on-line using our seven scientifically based mutual fund screening criteria. This article focuses on using the free mutual fund screener and database available at Morningstar.com. Financial Planning Software for Individuals In a previous article, The Skilled […]
On-line screening of mutual funds and ETFs: minimum requirements In this article, The Skilled Investor discusses minimum requirements for on-line mutual fund and ETF screening tools. This article summarizes our seven scientifically based fund selection criteria and reports on our survey of the capabilities of free on-line website tools to do screens using these criteria. […]
Scientific mutual fund and ETF screening criteria: a summary Scientifically based selection criteria are rational methods to screen mutual funds and ETFs. Recently, The Skilled Investor Blog published a series of articles on scientifically based selection criteria for mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). These screening rules help you to winnow down the thousands […]
Evaluate the historical investment performance of mutual funds and ETFs, BUT ONLY AFTER using other screening criteria Choosing only from among mutual funds and ETFs that have performed very well in the past can lead to significant selection mistakes and inferior personal portfolio returns Previous superior or average fund performance simply does not predict similar […]
Choose mutual funds and ETFs with a minimum economical portfolio size If you are going to invest in actively managed funds, then you should want them to have a sufficiently large asset base to fund the necessary research. If an active fund is too small, then fund management quality can suffer or fees could grow. […]