mikeymobiles

I have a meeting with an investment banker tom, and want to make sure they dont pull a fast one on me and that i know what everything is all about, any good tips to know instead of going head first into something?

She already starting talking to me about a mutual fund that gets 17% on the return and since i am young i dont mind putting it away for some time is this a realisitic number though?

anyone have any good mutual funds to look into?

Thanks

Scrib

I'm big on the American Funds right now.

http://www.americanfunds.com/

95gt

Just don't buy any fund with fees. There are a ton of no load funds out there. You are just wasting money by paying fees up front, or when you sell. Be careful because normally advisors try and push their companies funds (which 99% of the time have a fee).

CrockPot

or, if you begin feeling more confident with investing, you can always bypass the whole mutual fund thing and take a look at Exchange Traded Funds. openly sold, bought, traded as common stocks. just need to make sure you take into account commission fees during transactions when comparing benefits disadvantages between mutual and EFT's

SpeedyV6

"gets 17%" or has gotten 17%? Looking at yesterdays mutual funds & picking out one that has done well is easy. The problem is that this has little predictive value for future performance. Chances are she picked this one because it's easier to sell.

The truth is it's difficult enough to predict what the stock market will do. Picking a mutual fund company or portfolio manager who will outperform the market is virtually an exercise in futility. You're better off with no load low investment expense funds than the crap any advisor will sell you. Or as mentioned above, exchange traded funds like ishares, webs, or spiders are good way to diversify at low costs. These investments trade on exchanges like a single stock would and usually have the lowest costs. Click on "etf's" on this site: http://www.amex.com

For mutual funds look at Vanguard, TIAA-CREF, TRowePrice - anything with no load & low operating expenses.

Scrib

One thing for everyone to think about is if loaded funds are so bad, why are they still in existance? And don't say it's because of unsuspecting people.

I am in quite a few loaded funds. And they've all been very good to me.

mikeymobiles

SHe told me about this fund because there is a fee, i did some more research and realized the more she charges for the fund, the higher her commision, after i realized that i wont be going back to her

GreenMonster

I've been doing a little research on this, because when this forum started out, it was pointed out that I've got some loaded funds.

BUT the loaded funds have treated me well during the past 4-5 years (outperformed the market). It costs more to own them, but they generally perform better then some other funds with lower fees (at least from what I've seen).

I've learned that you really have to do alot of research and a "cost/benefit analysis" before dismissing loaded funds completely.

Commisions are a way of life, unless you do all your investing yourself. I'm not ready for that, so I'm trusting my adviser to steer me in the right direction for now.