DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
The table below in this article presents The Skilled Investor’s Fund Authority Score and other information for the American Funds – AMCAP Fund – Class A Shares. The diversified investment fund strategy of the American Funds – AMCAP Fund – Class A mutual fund shares (AMCPX) Find Home Financial Planning Software According to its prospectus […]
The diversified investment fund strategy of the Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) According to its prospectus filing on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR system, the investment strategy of the Fidelity Contrafund is to invest primarily in common stocks and particularly in the “securities of companies whose value Fidelity Management & Research Company believes is not […]
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 Personal 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 –>> Family Financial Planning Software Part 1 of this article discussed direct and hidden […]
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 […]
The heavy burden of recurring investment fees (Part 2 of 2) < < — Go to Part 1 By charging fees as a percent of your assets, the investment industry can make their recurring fees seem small – like they are “just a few†percent. Financial Planning Software for Consumers Furthermore, by charging fees against […]
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 Consumers 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. […]
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 […]