DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
Avoid very large actively managed mutual funds Big actively managed mutual fund portfolio positions and higher percentage ownership of any company’s bonds or common stock are not good things for actively managed mutual funds. Nor, are these big positions and high percentages good for you. Large portfolio size constrains how efficiently an actively managed mutual […]
Choose sufficiently mature mutual funds and ETFs Investing in more mature equity and bond mutual funds and exhanged-traded funds (ETFs) allows you to evaluate the historical consistency of a fund’s record. On average, the future portfolio returns of more mature funds are probably no more predictable than for very young funds with a similar style […]
Avoid investment funds with higher investment portfolio turnover The problem with high turnover is that higher fund trading adds substantial hidden expenses that drag down returns. Because short-term trading is a zero sum game (before costs) played against other well informed traders, greater turnover is far more likely on average to result in lower fund […]
Avoid mutual funds and ETFs with sales commissions and marketing fees Summary: There is no convincing evidence that sales loads and other sales fees charged to investors result in higher mutual fund and ETF performance. In fact, the opposite has repeatedly been proven true with mutual funds, which have a long performance history to evaluate. […]
Choose mutual funds and ETFs with MUCH LOWER investment management expenses Investment fund management fees can only be justified by individual investors, if higher net returns more than compensate for these fees. Sadly, this is most often not the case with actively managed equity and bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In addition, you […]