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Investments
Mutual Funds 101
Mutual funds are a great way to invest in your future. Whether you are planning for retirement, putting your kids through school, or just saving to purchase a home, go on a vacation, or some other future need, mutual funds offer a lower cost, well diversified way of achieving your goals.
Mutual funds are basically a group of investors “pooling” their money together to purchase securities, such as stock, bonds, money market instruments, and others. Mutual funds are very marketable, not to be confused with liquid, in that shares may be purchased or redeemed on a continuous basis. The fund company is usually able to purchase or redeem shares on any day the stock or bond markets are open.
A liquid investment is an investment an investor may redeem with little to no risk to principal (amount invested). Most mutual funds should never be considered a liquid investment as there are risks to investing in mutual funds. Risks include fluctuating value as mutual fund shares are tied to the value of the underlying securities, such as stocks or bonds. There is currency risk with investing in mutual funds that invest in securities of foreign companies, such as Europe or China. There is also political risk when investing in foreign securities as laws of foreign nations vary from US laws. Interest rate risk is also a factor when purchasing funds that invest in bonds or preferred stock.
One benefit to investing in mutual funds is that mutual funds invest in numerous different stocks or bonds. Instead of having your money tied to the value of just one stock, mutual funds purchase numerous different stocks and bonds so your money is not tied to just one stock if that stock or bond is under performing.
Fund managers purchase securities based on that fund’s investment strategy. If the fund strategy is to purchase large company stock, the fund will only have stock of large companies in its portfolio. If the investment objective is to purchase small company stock, the fund will only have stock of small companies in its portfolio. The benefit to the investor is that the investor only needs to decide what investment strategy is best for him or herself and invest accordingly. Based on each individual investors risk tolerance and time horizon, a portfolio of several different funds may be in order to complete their investing objective.
A benefit of investing in numerous different funds of the same fund family is that as an investor’s needs or investment strategy changes, shares may be transferred to different funds within the same family at no cost. The benefit is that as market conditions change, or an investor’s needs change, the investor’s portfolio can be adjusted quickly and easily at no cost to the investor.
Although, mutual funds are a great way to invest for your future needs, great care must be taken to ensure that the funds invested in are in line with your particular investment strategy, risk tolerance and time horizon. If you currently have an investment portfolio, now would be a great time for a no cost, no obligation review of your holdings to make sure that your investment portfolio is on line with your investment strategy.
Securities offered through: Whitehall-Parker Securities Inc. 477 Pacific Ave., 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 421-5935
Member FINRA/SIPC http://www.FINRA.org/