Someday you may want to retire and continue to live in the life style to which you have become accustomed. According to conventional wisdom you will need less money because you will have fewer expenses than when you had to go to the office every day. Maybe. Let's hope so.
Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way so you had better have saved enough cash to supplement the social security and pension plan income (if you have one).
My philosophy is to save with mutual funds as they are the safest way to invest in the stock market. There is one and only one basic criteria as to which mutual funds you should own. That fund or all those funds if you own more than one must be outperforming the S&P500 index (which is just an average) during the last 12 months.
Don't listen to the Wall Street gurus who tell you to buy a "good" fund and stick with it. The only good fund is one that is doing better than an average because you don't want your money doing a below average job. The hogwash you get from the great stock market "experts" is you need to look at how a fund has performed over the last 3, 5 or 10 years. Double hogwash. Ever hear the story about "what have you done for me lately"? It holds true for mutual funds.
Look up the big fund manager names on Wall Street. You will find that in the last 10 years all of them have had periods when they did not do an average job. You don't want to own any of their fund while this guy is going through a 'cold' period.
Every week the Investor's Business Daily paper publishes a list of various funds citing their performance over the past 36 months, 24 months, 12 months, 9 months, 6 months and 30 days. If you have the time and the right brokerage company you can pick the "hot" short term winners and switch from one to another at no commission charge. It does take time and effort.You will trade less frequently and you can get an excellent return on your money if you decide to go with the best performance over the last 12 months and you limit yourself to switching only if your fund falls out of the list..
When you are adding a small amount monthly to your IRA or 401k you will want to specify where those additional funds are to be invested. Always put them in the best performer at the time.
If you own more than one fund, say six, you should sell the weakest one and transfer your money from number six to number one. Sell the dog and invest in the top performer. Prune your portfolio monthly. Every fund manager will tell you this is too simplistic. It works. He is lying. Why? Because he is being paid on the amount of money in his fund and not upon the performance of the fund. It is called 'you buy, he holds'. It is a loser; he is a professional loser. Why should you be a loser too?
Review your funds' performance monthly and stay with the best ones. Retire early.
Al Thomas' book, "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It!" has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.
Copyright 2005
shuttle to Midway Beardstown .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareAfter finding the price of a particular stock, usually the... Read More
Ever wondered what is a mutual fund? A mutual fund... Read More
Picture one of those clubs where only the real heavyweights... Read More
In one of my previous articles (Investing in the stock... Read More
With all the bad news that has been dumped upon... Read More
This is a rather simple strategy with which I am... Read More
Now where have I heard that before? I know. It... Read More
There is no question that the stock market is being... Read More
The Dow Theorycharles h. dowcharles h.... Read More
On the 40 year journey through the turmoil of a... Read More
One of the great "secrets" of successful people is discipline... Read More
Investors who exclusively use broadly diversified, no load mutual funds... Read More
The bear market that showed up at the end of... Read More
For the year 2000 we have seen hundreds of mutual... Read More
TOO OFTEN, INVESTORS SIMPLY CHOOSE TO follow the crowd. This... Read More
Inverted interest rates? What's that? Who cares? Even if you... Read More
Last time we looked at the real performance of the... Read More
Alfred Winslow Jones started hedge funds in 1949. He was... Read More
Reach in your pocket and take out that big roll... Read More
One of the big advertising kicks today from mutual funds... Read More
A Guide to Using Stop Loss Orders Stop losses are... Read More
Every day in any financial publication you will find the... Read More
Using Swing Trading Strategies and Technical Analysis when Trading Stocks... Read More
All stock trading and investing methods must deal with the... Read More
The higher the market goes the more confusing are the... Read More
Green Bay Hummer H2 SUV rentals ..For the year 2000 we have seen hundreds of mutual... Read More
Just 30 years ago the stock market was a shadow... Read More
Stock trading remains a very competitive field and the stock... Read More
Every year I go to the Money Show in Orlando,... Read More
In November of 2000 when the NASDAQ was trading at... Read More
Most stock market traders have a favorite technical indicator.The one... Read More
Did you know you can make money (and a lot... Read More
Everyone who invests in the stock market wants to be... Read More
This is a rather simple strategy with which I am... Read More
Let's hope you did not have any of the Enron... Read More
When will the stock market stop going down and start... Read More
Congress recently passed another new law that is supposed to... Read More
When it comes to 401k's there is an overabundance of... Read More
I have watched my cat play with a bag of... Read More
Let's go into the details of why non-indexed mutual funds... Read More
The stock market has not been very kind to your... Read More
Should the market turn against you, it is important that... Read More
You have heard about a particular mutual fund from a... Read More
It has often been said that there is only two... Read More
Investing in long-term financial vehicles give you the most gains... Read More
If you are going to be a winner in the... Read More
One of the great "secrets" of successful people is discipline... Read More
"If you don't know where you are going, any road... Read More
Is really not as important as to how you invest... Read More
Reach in your pocket and take out that big roll... Read More
Stocks & Mutual Fund |