What's a good mutual fund to invest in?

Factual Questions
1

I am looking for a good long term growth fund. If you have a suggestion, why is it a good fund? What sectors does it invest in? etc…
I’m starting med school in the Fall and I want my money to start earning interest as soon as possible.

Thanks, Diver

2

Last year I put 2 Gs in an IRA in Vanguards Stock Market Index Fund and made 500 clams. This year I invested in the Janus Fund, which performed very well in 1999, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I’m sure your going to get about 35 responses from would be Trumps telling you how they made 79% last year on their mutual funds, and try to give you their brilliant advice on what stocks to get into. Trust me- wannbe be millionaires are a dime a dozen- especailly on the internet. Use your brain. These wackheads are either:

  1. Lucky. They will lose 85% back this year since they probably invested it all in Value America.
  2. Bullshit artists.
  3. Financial planning salesmen. Go back to #2.

My advice would be to invest in a very diversified fund from one of the two above companies. Invest money in more than one fund. If you can tag a a fund with an 14-18% growth rate with a ten year or more histoyry, go for it. Look for traditional blue chip stocks that are into tech. GE, for instance.

One more piece of advice: dont invest in internet stocks. Intenet IPOs are the biggest fraud in this country, only next to the S&L crisis. How the hell can Americans be so stupid to invest billions into WEBSITES that will NEVER generate a profit???

IDIOTS.

3

Thanks,
Reminds me of the story I saw in News of the Weird about an internet company that sold a few million shares in an IPO despite the fact that their filing with the SEC clearly showed they did no actual business, had no plans to start doing business, and if they did, they weren’t sure what kind of business it would be.

-Diver

4

Best advice I can give is to find a fund family with several different types of funds, then read up on them and pick the one that suits your needs. I’ve got some invested in Vanguard, and some in a relatively new fund family called TIAA-CREF. Both of them are no-load, with low fees. You can open TIAA-CREF funds for a pretty low initial amount, particularly if you set up an automatic deposit.

5

I’m not an expert, but here’s what I did. I went to Quicken.com and used their excellent Fund Finder, a very detailed search engine. Hope this helps.

BTW, the fund I ended up with was the Alger Capital Appreciation Retirement account. There is a comission, but the 5 year return is in the high forties…

6

Janus is a good fund, can’t go wrong there. Fidelity and Putnam have some good ones too, with low minimums and noload. I like big funds with big assets, just my style. How soon till you need the money ?
If it’s not for at least 10 years then you might want to take a chance with specialty funds like health care or technology at least with part of your $$.

7

As a rule of thumb, if you’re going to need the money within 5 years, don’t put it in the stock market (including stock mutual funds). It’s true that after the 1987 crash, new highs were made again within about 2 years. But after the market high in early 1973, new highs were not made again until late 1982. After the 1929 crash, new highs were not made again until the early 1950s. (That’s not quite as bad as it sounds; dividends were unusually high in that period.)

The best use for the money is to make yourself debt-free, if you aren’t already. That means all debt: student loans, credit cards, and auto loans.

If you are paying for med school yourself, your school may have a plan that will allow you to pay your tuition up-front at reduced rates. Make sure you understand the refund policy in case you drop out or transfer.

This isn’t to trash stock investing. I have most of my meagre savings in the stock market, but then again I’m 100% debt free and I expect my need for cash over the next 5 years to be slight.