Stocks & Mutual Funds

Articles and Information about Stocks and Mutual Funds

NetFinancial | Institutions | Loans
Colleges and Universities | Search Engines

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 BuyIt!" has helped thousands of people make moneyand keep their profits with his simple 2-stepmethod. Read the first chapter athttp://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Streetdoes not want you to know.

Copyright 2005


MORE RESOURCES:

Money Tip: ETFs stable in turbulent markets
Baxter Bulletin, AR - 21 minutes ago
Trading in exchange-traded funds has been stable and strong despite recent troubles in financial markets. Like mutual funds, ETFs are single investments ...


www.RaagVamdatt.com Opens Up Premium Advertisement Slots
PRLog.Org (press release), Romania - Jul 21, 2008
Therefore, the website can be a very good fit for products and services related to stocks, mutual funds, banks, credit cards, insurance, loans, real estate, ...


Brokerages try to reach out to NRIs and PIOs
Economic Times, India - Jul 19, 2008
Though data on NRI investments is hazy, preferred asset classes are stocks, mutual funds and property, experts say. According to RBI data, $3.9 bn of NRI ...


On the offence: Where to invest in a down market
Globe and Mail, Canada - Jul 19, 2008
Long term, well-chosen stocks, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds bought today should beat that return by a huge margin. For some guidance on where to ...


After IndyMac: How safe is your money?
Daily Home Online, AL - Jul 16, 2008
The FDIC also does not cover what it calls “non-deposit investments and insurance products,” such as stocks, mutual funds, life insurance policies and ...


Our View: Bulletin Remade: paper’s new look inspires passionate ...
Norwich Bulletin, CT - Jul 19, 2008
One of the major changes with the redesign was the elimination of the page in which we report stocks, mutual funds and commodities. ...


Here are a dozen ways to get a down payment
Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jul 4, 2008
Liquidate stocks, mutual funds, savings bonds or other investments. Take a loan from your 401(k) retirement plan and repay yourself with interest. ...


Technical Outlook: Consider This TIP
TheStreet.com - Jul 4, 2008
The key is to do your research and look for stocks, mutual funds or ETFs in the top-performing sectors of the market and then diversify your holdings among ...


Bond, mortgage insurers mixed after Russell move
Forbes, NY - Jun 30, 2008
That index is then broken down into 26 smaller indexes, including the widely watched Russell 1000 index of large-capitalization stocks. Mutual funds and ...


Financial intelligence makes you wealthy
Hindu, India - Jun 28, 2008
“It is not the real estate, stocks, mutual funds, businesses, or money that makes a person rich. It is information, knowledge, wisdom, and know-how, ...

Stocks-Mutual-Funds - Google News

Currency Trading | Investing | Leadership | Negoatiation | Real Estate | Stocks and Mutual Funds | Taxes
home | NetFinancial | Institutions | Loans | Colleges and Universities | site map
Search Engines | EZmatic | 0pops | GetSonic | TrafficFish | Health
© 2006