October 2009
Doing Your Homework on Financial Advisers
In recent years we’ve seen a lot of turmoil on Wall Street and the investing world. Between Bernie Madoff and the financial crisis of ’08 and ’09, many of today’s financial issues are the results of a multitude of conflicts of interest on Wall Street. And a lot of investors are left wondering who can I trust to help me manage my money and hopefully grow my wealth.
The Business Benefits of Estrogen
It’s well-known that I prefer index funds over any actively managed fund, but I read a couple of studies that showed women fund managers perform better than their male counterparts. So I decided to do some research on the subject and I found out some interesting facts on estrogen and testosterone. Here’s what I found…
Everything is sooo expensive!
Ok so I am trying really hard to stay within my budgetary constraints.I am stashing a small amount in my savings for my emergency fund...I am investing a small amount for retirement... but then I pay all my bills and i am left with little or no disposable income. This is a sad state when I go to the supermarket and I walk out having spent a hundred dollars on two bags of groceries.
Mutual Funds - Sales Charges, The Bad News Gets Even Worse
In the first two articles in this series we covered index funds versus actively managed funds and then we learned about the major types of the high fees associated with actively managed funds. And since fees are just another chunk of your money going into someone else’s pocket, we saw that taking that money out of your investment instead of letting it grow and work for you makes it very hard -- and therefore very unlikely – for most actively managed funds to beat the market.
Unfortunately, it gets even worse if you invest through a broker…
Separately Managed Accounts – Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and The Importance of Due Diligence
In this article of my Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) series, I discuss some advanced topics that even some sophisticated investors may not think about. Because SMAs do not issue registered prospectuses, investors need to rely on other sources for investigating and evaluating the manager. In investor-speak, this is referred to as due diligence. Like doing your homework on a service provider, comprehensive due diligence should include detailed information in the following areas:
Mutual Fund Fees - What They Won't Tell You About the Fine Print
In the first article in this series we learned about index funds versus actively managed funds.
Index funds, which are setup to track a market index, don't cost much for mutual funds companies to run. Another way to describe index investing is “passive” investing. And just as it sounds, "passive" investment is less expensive than “active” investment.
