What are Mutual Funds

One of the best financial instruments to get started as an investor are mutual funds.

How a mutual fund operates

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An investment company solicits investments from many investors. Those investments can be as small as $25 per month. This is what makes mutual fund so appealing, that it is within the reach of practically anyone who can put together a small amount of money.

The money collected is used to make investments, generally of stocks, but also bonds and other securities. A professional mutual fund manager is the person in charge of making daily investment decisions.

Having a large pool of money allows the money manager to diversify into many investments. Small investors generally don’t have the capital to invest in hundreds of different companies. Also, small investors don’t have the time nor expertise to research hundreds of companies.

The different focus of mutual funds

Many mutual funds companies have a different focus of interest. For example, some funds may invest in technology companies, other funds may invest in dividend-paying stocks, others may invest in small stock. It is up to the investor to decide which of those investment philosophies he/she prefers and then buy the mutual fund which reflects that philosophy.

Advantages of mutual funds

One of the big advantages of mutual funds is the elimination or reduction of single stock risk. Those who once owned Nortel, Enron, or Blackberry are well aware of the single stock risk. Single stock risk exists when an investor can lose a significant amount of money because the single stock they own, has a big decline in price. By having hundreds of stocks, the single stock risk is greatly diminished.

Disadvantages of Mutual funds

However, mutual funds are risky and many of them could do so badly that they could be closed down. It is quite possible to lose 50% or more of your money when investing in mutual funds.

Another big disadvantage of owning mutual funds is their high fees. Canada has one of the highest mutual funds fees in the world. While you, the investor, are putting your money at risk, the mutual fund company could easily eat away more than 50% of your profit. It’s very important to make sure your fees are low. Most Canadian mutual fund charge between 2% to 3% in fees. This is outrageous, they should be ashamed of themselves, but is it also, the general public faults.

Side note: I have a friend, who continues investing in expensive mutual funds because the mutual fund salesperson invited him to a nice steak dinner.

Look for low fee index funds

If you are interested in mutual funds, make sure you don’t pay more than 1% in management fees. There are many alternatives out there.

It has been proven over time that most active managers don’t beat the benchmark to which their funds are compared. For example, a Canadian mutual fund may be compared to the Canadian stock market index. Most mutual funds don’t beat their benchmark because of their high fees or because of many other mutual funds inefficiencies.

The solution to diversify your investment and pay a low fee is to invest in a mutual fund that follows the national index. For example, in Canada, I would invest in a mutual fund that follows the Toronto Stock Exchange 300. In the US, I would invest in a mutual fund that follows the S&P 500. The fee for this kind of fund is generally 0.10% or less.

Historically the US market and Canadian market have grown at the rate of over 8% per year. If you subtract the index fund expense of 0.10% then you will be leftover with a profit of 7.9% or more. This is a more interesting scenario than paying 2 to 3% in fees to a mutual fund manager.

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