Buying up some mutual funds.
 

I'm looking to invest a few thousand dollars in some mutual funds now, and potentially (hopefully) alot more in the near future. I've had my eye on the Vanguard funds since they look like they've done consistently well. Specifically I was thinking about the wellington funds or the windsor funds. Is there anyone who thinks my money would be better invested elsewhere? I'm willing to accept a moderate level of risk.

Also, if I do go with Vanguard, it would probably be best for me just to open an account there instead of getting an account through an online broker like Ameritrade right?

Thanks.

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

All my (amateur) research has led me to believe that ETFs are better than funds.

natedogg

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

if you must buy funds vanguard are better than almost all others. why not just use their picks from their funds and buy the stocks and sit on them. this way you arent having your money churned to raise more buyers for their funds by dumping out of favor stocks and puttin in ones that are in the spotlight.

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

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All my (amateur) research has led me to believe that ETFs are better than funds.

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It depends on whether you're going to invest once, or increase your investment every month or so. If you only invest once, the lower fees charged by ETFs are better. If you're buying every month, the extra commissions you need to pay to buy ETFs outweigh the lower fees.

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

i could do this but I imagine the cost of buying several hundred different stocks would be far more than whatever vangaurd is going to charge me. As far as I could tell, I think it was like $10 or $20/year max.

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

Yes. The point of mutual funds, or at least index funds, which is what you should buy, is cheap and easy diversification. Vanguard I think will charge an account fee of $10/year for accounts less than $50,000, and expense ratios are something like 0.18%. For an investment of a few thousand, this is much cheaper than buying even a few individual stocks.

Index funds don't "churn" to follow momentum, so that is not a concern.

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

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It depends on whether you're going to invest once, or increase your investment every month or so. If you only invest once, the lower fees charged by ETFs are better. If you're buying every month, the extra commissions you need to pay to buy ETFs outweigh the lower fees.

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Not necessarily. If your amount invested is very large, then it still makes sense to stick with ETFs even if you will incur many small transaction fees. This makes sense if the amount you'll save in maintenance fees (Often between 0.5% and 1%) exceeds the costs of the commissions. For most people, though, you are correct that small time investors are better off at least starting off with no-load mutual funds in order to reduce transaction costs.

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

If you do buy a fund, I have had the best results with Masters Select Equity (MSEFX).

natedogg

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

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If you do buy a fund, I have had the best results with Masters Select Equity (MSEFX).

natedogg

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...orrrrrr you could just look up the various returns of various funds and compare them with the S&P or appropriate index.

Re: Buying up some mutual funds.
 

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...orrrrrr you could just look up the various returns of various funds and compare them with the S&P or appropriate index.

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You mean just to determine whether or not I should put my money in an EFT or funds? I'm a complete noob at this [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].