NerdWallet Investing analyzed over 13,000 of the largest mutual funds with at least $125 million in net assets and a net expense ratio greater than 2%, to find the worst performing and most expensive funds in your portfolio. Though mutual funds by nature are highly diversified, not all funds are a smart investment and the following twelve significantly underperformed even their peers belonging to other categories: Fund Name Symbol Style 5 Year Annualized Return Net Expense … [Read more...]
NerdWallet’s Dirty Dozen: The Worst Performing and Most Expensive Mutual Funds
May 21, 2013 Leave a Comment
Open Roth IRA Now or Later: Reader Question Series
May 17, 2013 Leave a Comment
Reader: First, I would like to thank you for your blog and the advice you give. I've learned a lot and feel much more confident when evaluating and understanding index funds and investing in general. My question for you is about Vanguard's Target Retirement Date 2050 Fund. I cannot afford the $3,000 to buy the individual index funds from your The Simple Four Index Funds Portfolio just yet, but could do $1,000 minimum into a Roth IRA with the Target Retirement Date fund now. I would then … [Read more...]
Stock..What Is It?
May 10, 2013 Leave a Comment
At some point, just about everyone experiences money crunch situations in their personal lives. Similarly, companies experience money crunch situations too in their lifetimes. Companies need to raise money to build a new factory, start a new office, hire additional employees, invest in R&D, or ramp up advertising to generate revenue. In each case, companies have two choices: (1) Borrow the money from the bank or investors, or (2) raise it from investors by selling them shares of a stock … [Read more...]
College Savings Planner Calculator
May 3, 2013 Leave a Comment
As soon as our daughter was born in 2010, I started a college savings fund for her. I simply added a Vanguard Target Retirement Date 2030 fund to my individual account portfolio as opposed to opening a 529 College Savings account. More on why. After the initial investment, I started contributing smaller amounts, then gradually increased it, and finally in 2013, I am contributing about $600 per month. Just within the last 3 years, this fund has grown to about $20,000. I recently came across … [Read more...]
Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund Review (VEIEX, VEMAX, VWO)
April 26, 2013 Leave a Comment
The Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund offers investors a low-cost way to invest directly in emerging markets around the world, such as Brazil, Russia, India, Taiwan, and China. The fund offers diversified exposure to the emerging markets by closely tracking the FTSE Emerging Transition Index and has beaten its peer average 8 out of the last 10 years. Composition The Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund holds about 1047 stocks. The median market cap of the companies involved … [Read more...]
Becoming Rich Is a Choice
April 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
Our life is a series of choices. We constantly have to choose among multiple choices—some good, and some bad. The question then really is are we making right choices or not. If not, why not. In order to choose right, you must first be able to discern right choices from the not-so-right-choices. This is possible only when you allow yourself enough time to think through choices and their consequences. This is only possible when you stop hurrying through life and take moments to evaluate your … [Read more...]
Fund of Funds Investing
April 11, 2013 1 Comment
I believe in simplicity. Simplicity is good because you don't have to think too much when things are simple. One of the things that keep people from investing is that too many choices lead to analysis paralysis. A research study on 401(K) participation by Barry Schwartz, who wrote the book Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More, concluded that when there were too many fund choices, people deferred their investment decision and they never ended up making decision at all. When they were given … [Read more...]
