Are you looking for a good way to invest your money? If so, you might consider mutual funds. A mutual fund is essentially a collection of stocks and/or bonds that is shared by investors. Everyone puts his money into a “basket,” and each person owns a proportional percentage of the overall mutual fund. Each mutual fund has managers that are in charge of the buy-and-sell decisions, so all the investor needs to do is put his money in and wait/hope to earn some profits.
Four reasons investors choose mutual funds are:
-It takes the work off your shoulders — why spend time going through rows of figures and researching the performance of your securities when there are professional money managers who can do this for you? In fact, not only do they save you the work, but they can possibly do it better.
-“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” or in financial terms, diversification. Diversification is a technique where you spread your investments among various companies, industries, and geographic locations, thus minimizing your risk if something fails. For example, if you were to put all of your savings into Brazilian coffee and a huge flood wiped out the entire coffee bean crop across South America, you would be left with nothing. But if you diversify, you are less likely to lose everything. Putting your money into mutual funds, which by their very nature are diverse (though some do stick to certain sectors or countries), saves you the headache of searching for the best way to spread your investments.
-Mutual funds are not only good for the big guns. If you only have a little bit of money you can still invest. Unlike some professional money managers who may have minimum account size requirements to manage your money, mutual funds offer professional management without investment minimums (other than buying one share). In this way, mutual funds may be an affordable way to get professional guidance and diversification.
-What if you suddenly need your money? Mutual funds are fairly liquid. You can redeem your shares at the current NAV —along with any fees and charges assessed on redemption — at any time.
If you think investing in mutual funds may be for you, learn more at www.LearnAboutInvestments.com, and then schedule a meeting with your financial adviser.