FundAdvice.com Articles


Paul Merriman: 10 realities of REITs
User Rating: / 40
Written by Paul Merriman   
July 24, 2007

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.

Paul Merriman: 10 reasons I favor bond funds
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Written by Paul Merriman   
July 12, 2007

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.

Paul Merriman: 10 reasons brokers don’t like index funds
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Written by Paul Merriman   
June 04, 2007

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: 

Paul Merriman: 10 reasons I like index funds
User Rating: / 43
Written by Paul Merriman   
May 24, 2007

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. 

Paul Merriman: 10 pros and cons of target retirement funds
User Rating: / 37
Written by Paul Merriman   
June 26, 2007

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.
 

Paul Merriman: 10 reasons I think variable annuities are a bum deal
User Rating: / 74
Written by Paul Merriman   
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.

DowJones MarketWatch.com praises FundAdvice.com portfolios
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Written by Adam Ott   
June 06, 2007

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.

 

DowJones MarketWatch.com spotlights success of 7 “lazy portfolios”
User Rating: / 18
Written by Adam Ott   
July 16, 2007

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.

 

Market unnerves many investors
User Rating: / 4
Written by Adam Ott   
August 03, 2007

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. 

  

The right way to choose and buy mutual funds
User Rating: / 24
Written by Richard Buck   
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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