Mutual Funds

Mutual funds are necessary investments for investors both young and old. They provide essential diversification and can strengthen your returns over the long-term. But there are too many funds for any single investor to sift through. Luckily, our analysts give you the inside track on funds with the smallest minimal investments and funds that charge low fees, so you can maximize your performance.

Top Health Care Mutual Funds for a Healthy Portfolio

By William Ehart
Investors will pay any price these days, it seems, for investments they expect to hold up in dire economic times. There is no yield too low for Treasuries and money market funds, no price too high for gold. Bear market strategies abound. But health care stocks? Who needs ’em!

4 Top Vanguard Mutual Funds

By William Ehart
They don’t come any bigger than Vanguard mutual funds. With $1.3 trillion in assets and more than 100 mutual funds, Vanguard offers a lot of top 401k fund options to investors looking for a one-stop shop. Its rock-bottom expenses make it the low-cost fund family – and lower expenses boost returns for your 401k.

Vanguard Mutual Fund Managers Show Cautious Optimism

By Dan Wiener
My mailbox is filled with semiannual reports from a multitude of Vanguard's funds and mutual fund managers. I thought you'd find some of their comments enlightening and encouraging. On the whole, I'd say cautious optimism is the theme that runs through these reports. Here is a sampling, along with my opinions and recommendations.

6 Best Fidelity U.S. Stock Mutual Funds

By William Ehart
Stop the presses – a Fidelity fund with just $117.7 million in assets rated four stars out of five by Morningstar. A fund that has beaten the S&P 500 and its Morningstar Large Growth category over the past three and five year periods won’t fly under investors’ radar for long.

New Mutual Fund with a 45 Year Outlook

By Jon Ogg
There was an interesting launch this week from Vanguard in its new "target date" funds, which aims to entice investors to put in their funds into a single fund for a target retirement date. Vanguard's new target fund is for 45 years down the road via the Vanguard Target Retirement 2055 Fund.

4 Value Mutual Funds Standing Out

By William Ehart
Mutual fund returns have hardly been stable as the stock market has become increasingly jittery over the last year or two. Particularly, mutual fund investment over the last year’s general exuberance has given way to economic worries and other news-driven fears – meaning mutual fund performance has likely suffered for many in the short-term.

3 Mutual Fund Winners

By ETFguide
Here are three simple investment tips to help ensure your 401k investments are on the right track.

8 Five-Star Mutual Funds on Fire

By William Ehart
It pays to find mutual funds that are still outperforming.

7 Vanguard Mutual Funds to Dump Now

By Dan Wiener
Sell these Vanguard mutual funds if you ever want to profit.

2 Vanguard Mutual Funds for Instant Diversification

By Dan Wiener
These two balanced funds are among the best in the Vanguard mutual fund family.

3 Top Mutual Fund Performers in the Last Year

By InvestorPlace Staff
It has been an interesting 12 months for stocks and mutual funds. Equities surged off the 2009 lows, gave up much of their gains and then earned some of it back. Year to date, the broader market has squeaked out a small gain and over the last 12 months the major indexes are sitting on gains of around 15%.

Vanguard Investing – 11 Secrets to Building 401k Wealth

By Dan Wiener
Investing in Vanguard mutual funds doesn't have to be difficult or confusing. Vanguard may not make it easy to plot the safest course for your 401k investments, but with a few pointers you can turn your retirement money into a healthy nest egg in no time.

7 Common Mutual Fund Mistakes

By Dan Wiener
If you can avoid the deceptive claims for your 401k investing plan, hidden investment risks and half-baked 401k strategies, you can, in fact, use mutual funds to fund your retirement years.

Time for Mutual Fund Convertibles Again?

By Dan Wiener
Convertibles aren't well understood by most investors and so don't always attract the attention they deserve for providing good risk-adjusted returns in volatile markets.

401k Investing – SEC Falls Short on Target Funds

By Dan Wiener
Many 401k investors have target funds as part of their mutual fund portfolio. Last week, the SEC proposed new rules they think will help individual 401k retirement investors in target date funds like Vanguard's Target Retirement series, by requiring better disclosure of the funds' asset allocation strategies.

Investing in Stocks Is Your Best Bet Right Now

By Dan Wiener
Though I specialize in Vanguard mutual funds, I have always believed that the way to grow an investor's portfolio is to focus on stocks -- an ownership right in the profits (and sometimes losses) and dividends generated by what we hope are well-managed companies making goods and providing services that companies and people want.

Vanguard Waives Fees on ETFs

By Dan Wiener
After waiving internal expenses on its money market funds, Vanguard announced this week it's also waiving commissions for Vanguard Brokerage account holders who trade Vanguard ETFs.

Save Your 401k from Multi-Managed Mayhem

By Dan Wiener
Vanguard announced last week that it's handing an 8.5% piece of the Vanguard Windsor II Fund (VWNFX) to Sanders Capital, and in particular John Mahedy, who used to work on Windsor when he was at AllianceBernstein.

Vanguard Explorer Value Fund VEVFX Unimpressive Out of the Box

By Dan Wiener
The Vanguard Explorer Value Fund (VEVFX) just opened to investors with a subscription period beginning in March. With the money held in cash, the fund began investing in equities at month-end. As I told you in December, when Vanguard first filed papers to open the fund, Explorer Value will focus on small- to mid-sized value companies, which Vanguard sees as an open niche in their actively managed fund lineup.
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