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 […]
Select mutual funds and ETFs with the most important economic factors that affect long term, diversified, and risk-adjusted investment fund returns Good things are born small and grow over time. Regularly, The Skilled Investor evaluates individual mutual funds and ETFs and adds new articles that use the Fund Authority Score rating system. To be alerted […]
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 for Consumers Parts 1 and 2 of this article discussed the […]
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 –>> Family Financial Planning Software for Home Use Part 1 of this article discussed […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise, objective, and realistic summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within […]
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. Family Financial Planning Software Fund Authority Scores measure […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise, objective, and realistic summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise and objective summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within investment […]
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 […]
<<– Continued from Part 1 Family Financial Planning Software for Home Use In addition to showing that large numbers of additional stocks are required to achieve measurable improvements in diversification, the Evans and Archer study clarified other requirements for a well-diversified portfolio. The number of stocks selected for a highly diversified portfolio also depends on […]
A well-diversified portfolio contains a very large number of individual stocks and/or bonds that are selected without bias toward particular economic segments. A fully diversified portfolio will approximate the global publicly traded securities markets. The question about diversification most frequently asked by individual investors is “how many stocks or bonds do I need to be […]
Can you really get free and objective investment advice, when you pay investment sales loads? (Part 2 of 2) Excessive investment costs and investment expenses are a plague on your lifetime personal financial planning. Excessive investment expenses are one of the most significant barriers to lifelong family financial security. While financial services industry sales people […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]