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Written by Paul Merriman
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July 24, 2007 |
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Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have produced high returns over the last seven years, leading to some false expectations and misunderstandings.
If you’re not really sure what a REIT is, welcome to the club. Fortunately, they aren’t mysteriously complex.
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Written by Paul Merriman
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July 12, 2007 |
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Most investors make sure their portfolios include some bonds in order to manage their risks. The conventional wisdom – with which I generally agree – is that the fixed-income part of your portfolio becomes more important as you get closer to retirement.
Some people like to own individual bonds. This lets them know exactly what they have, what interest payments they’ll receive and what they’ll get when the bonds mature – and exactly when that will be.
But other investors prefer bond funds. Here are 10 reasons why I’m one of them.
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Written by Paul Merriman
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June 04, 2007 |
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As more investors turn to index funds, brokers and other fund salespeople continue to invent arguments favoring non-index funds, the kind they want you to buy. An index fund attempts to replicate the investment results of a target index by investing in all the securities in that index or in a portfolio that closely approximates it. An actively managed fund tries to beat the market by selecting stocks the manager hopes will outperform the index.
Here are ten bad arguments against index funds:
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Written by Paul Merriman
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May 24, 2007 |
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I believe index funds are an investor’s best choice. And I’m in good
company. In addition to Vanguard’s John Bogle, index fund advocates
include Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, Charles Schwab, The Motley Fool,
Knight Kiplinger and even Jim Cramer. Yet even with that all-star fan
club, index funds currently attract only 20 percent of new investment
dollars, which means that 80 percent of investors are still buying
individual stocks and actively managed funds.
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Written by Paul Merriman
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June 26, 2007 |
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Are target retirement funds the one-size-fits-all investment choice they appear to be? Maybe, maybe not. Here are 10 things Paul Merriman thinks you should know before you invest.
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Written by Paul Merriman
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May 17, 2007 |
Annuities—fixed and variable—are insurance contracts that enable investors to set aside money that grows inside an insurance contract without generating current tax liability. My biggest complaint is with variable annuities. Variable annuities are valuable tools for some situations. However, I believe that 90 percent of the variable annuities sold are not the best solutions for the people who buy them.
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Written by Adam Ott
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June 06, 2007 |
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Read what Paul B. Farrell, columnist for DowJones MarketWatch.com had to say recently about FundAdvice.com’s suggested buy-and-hold portfolios at Vanguard, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price.
Those of you who follow these portfolios will find 'Lazy Portfolios' beat S&P 500's 'record' of great interest.
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Written by Adam Ott
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July 16, 2007 |
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Paul B. Farrell, columnist for DowJones MarketWatch.com, spotlights the track records of seven buy-and-hold portfolios, including one from FundAdvice.com . He believes passive investing is the “best and safest way to capture the bull on the way up and the bear on the way down.”
Click here to read the article by Paul Farrell.
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Written by Adam Ott
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August 03, 2007 |
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In the second half of July, the U.S. stock market dropped 5.9 percent, the international market by 5.6 percent (measured by the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Morgan Stanley Europe Australia Far East Index known as EAFE). The drop wasn’t enough to qualify as either a crash or a correction. But it was swift enough to prompt many startled investors to call us asking if their money was still safe.
What just happened is called a drawdown, an inevitable part of the market’s normal cycle. After a big drawdown early last year, Paul Merriman wrote what has become one of the most important articles in our educational library. It’s full of things that every savvy investor should know.
Click here to read this article.
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Written by Richard Buck
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June 21, 2007 |
What’s the best way to buy mutual funds – on your own or through a broker? Richard Buck, publications manager for Merriman Berkman Next, describes an academic study on this topic, then takes his own look “under the hood” of a mutual fund too see what investors really pay for brokers’ help with choosing funds.
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