Low Expense Ratio
One of the big advertising kicks today from mutual funds is to tell how low their expense ratio is and that you will make a great deal more money if you buy and hold with them. Partly true, but that is not the whole story.
What is the expense ratio? It is all their overhead including but not limited to all the managers and other employees salaries, rent, computers, utilities, travel (the fund manager says he has to visit a company in Florida in the winter to see how it is doing), advisory services, telephone, etc., etc, etc. Oops, and don't forget the manager's bonus whether he makes money for you or not. If the fund has one billion (yes, that's a B) that means they can spend $10,000,000 on expenses and no one will complain because it is a tiny 1%.
At some point expenses just about stop going up as you don't need very many more people to manage the paper work for a billion than you do for 250 million. The fund manager's duties remain the same just the size of the orders he places changes. Actually as a fund grows in size its expenses should automatically come down as a percent of assets, but you will find that is not the case for many funds. They keep sticking it to their investors who don't have any idea how egregious this is.
The larger the fund family the lower should be their expenses per fund as they can outsource from the fund to a central billing and customer service desk.
Vanguard Funds has more than 100 individual funds in its family and they brag on how low is their expense ratio. It should be as they have more than 720 Billion spread out over those funds. They keep their expenses low and at only 1/2% they can charge about 360 million to offset their overhead.
Many funds run very high expenses. This is especially true for new and smaller funds, but as they take in more money they can spread their expenses and lower their ratios. One of the recent criticisms of funds is they have been making extra charges labeled 12B-1 that are supposed to be expressly for promotion to bring in new customers. Unfortunately, some (not all) of the fund managers have been pocketing this. If this does bring in new money then the expense ratio should fall and again in many cases it has not.
Investors expect fund managers to be honest. When large sums of money are at stake it seems to bring out the worst. That real nice fund manager turns into a hungry wolf and the investor becomes one of the 3 little pigs that did not escape.
Al Thomas' book, "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It!" has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.
Copyright 2005
More Resources
Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exitingMore Stocks & Mutual Funds Information:
Related Articles
Dont Fight The Fed
One of the great truisms of Wall Street is "Don't fight the Fed". For the long term investors this has resulted in greater profits.
Ignore Stock Market Talking Heads
You should ignore analysts on TV, the radio, the newspaper and all other TALKING HEADS when it comes to investing! What stocks do they talk about? - The same old group, every day of every year - Why? Because they don't know any better, they are sheep like the general public, repeating what every economic textbook says and every other economist tells them to say. Everyday, the same companies are highlighted on the evening news -WHY?They aren't going anywhere.
Political Investing
We have two candidates for president that have really different ideas on how to make the economy grow.Bush believes in the entrepreneurial approach.
Your Job
There are so many kinds of work that needs to be done and you are doing one of those jobs right now - unless you are one of those two and a half million that have been laid off during the past 3 years. The press continues to blame China and India for stealing away all these forms of employment, but they don't have it right.
Cash
How many people went to a cash position this week? There is no question that this market has scared the bajebers out of many investors, me included. Fortunately, I started going to cash some time ago, but I did give back a substantial amount of my profit.
Maximizing a Stock Market Investment
Maximizing a stock market investmentThere are several factors an investor in the stock market should consider for a maximum return on an investment:1. All stock purchases should be commission-free.
Overseas Investing: Going Against the Mainstream
TOO OFTEN, INVESTORS SIMPLY CHOOSE TO follow the crowd. This strategy works in the short term, but can lead to difficulty in the longer haul.
Red, Green, Yellow - or - Stop, Go, Go Very Fast: Which Describes Your Online Trading?
Ever notice how behavior in one area of life can apply to behavior in other areas of life? For example, I've noticed a number of things while driving that apply to online trading. One of them is regarding how people behave toward traffic signals.
Making a Stock Watch List
I am taking the time to help others learn the basics in evaluating stocks for investment using both fundamental and technical analysis. Both tools are equally important in making serious decisions with your hard earned CASH!If you wish to invest in stocks, treat it like a business, NOT A HOBBY.
When?
When will the stock market stop going down and start up again? If we knew that we'd all be jillionaires. So what do you do now while stocks are going down and stealing away your money every day?What does history tell us? Here is one very interesting fact.
Stock Trading Diversification
This is the continuing story of our two imaginary traders, Peter and Paul.Peter is a professional trader, Paul is not.
Buying New Issues
Has your broker been calling you recently with the "great opportunity" to get in on a new Initial Public Offering? With friends like that you don't need any enemies.I don't care how good this new stock offering sounds.
Acapulco - The Stock Market Dives
There is a famous cliff on the ocean in Acapulco where experienced divers jump into the sea. It is very dangerous because the water at the base of the cliff surges from a depth of 2 feet to 12 feet.
The Right Mutual Funds For Baby Boomers
If you are a baby boomer, time is not on your side. Many baby boomers see retirement age fast approaching with little to nothing in the way of retirement assets that will allow them to actually retire and live a comfortable lifestyle.
Stock Analysis
I receive emails from Morningstar. This company provides statistics and analysis of just about every publicly traded stock company you can think of as well as voluminous information on mutual funds around the world.
Why the Majority Fail at Stock Investing
The gleam and bright lights of Wall Street lure in many new investors each year, only to send them home crying to their friends and family. Why do so many people fail when it comes to the stock market? The reason is very simple: Hard work! Most people are looking for a quick buck or a fast path to riches.
Prosperity
It has fallen upon the consumer to make our economy strong. All the politicians, economists and talking heads on TV are telling him (that's you and me) to get out there and spend your money.
The Cub; II
We keep hearing about this bear market and that the bottom is "in" or "very close" so we should be invested in these bargain basement prices to take advantage of the next bull so we won't lose out on the expected huge profits.This is not a big bear market - yet.
Momentum
One of the basic laws of physics states that a body in motion will continue in motion in the direction it is going until interrupted by another force.That basic physics law also applies to stocks and mutual funds.
Investment Capital Gains
Have you bought any mutual funds this year or late last year while the market was doing its skyrocket thing? Last year it was hard to lose money. This year it has been easy.