As a new investor you’re looking for your best investment options. Popular investment options include stocks, bonds, and real estate. The problem is that these are only your best investment options IF you have the time and expertise to devote to them. Does that mean that as a new investor the above investment options are closed to you? No, it does not.
Tens of millions of Americans invest money without ever picking a stock, analyzing a bond, or inspecting a property. As the stock market goes up they make money. When interest rates fall they earn more interest in bonds. When real estate ownership is profitable, and it usually is, they watch the value of their investment go up and earn dividends as well. These people invest in mutual funds.
Mutual funds offer investors a wide array of choices or investment options: from stocks and bonds to international investments to money market securities to gold & other precious metals to real estate equities. If you’re looking for your best investment options, look no further. Mutual funds are simply investment packages that manage money for their pool of investors. Professionals manage a portfolio of stocks, bonds or other securities for the investors; and the fund charges for their services by deducting expenses and/or other fees from each investor’s holdings based on the value of shares held.
Not only are mutual funds the best investment for the inexperienced or new investor, they are a simple way to invest. You look at the list of funds offered by a fund company, your investment options, and select the funds that invest in the areas that interest you. You simply invest money, a dollar amount, and this buys shares based on the share price when they process your investment. You can buy or sell mutual funds at will, or move from one fund to another within the same fund company. This gives you flexibility.
It’s easy to invest in these funds. You can invest at home, in your retirement plan at work, or through a financial planner. Is it easy to invest money successfully? Not necessarily. If you invest money in a stock fund and the stock market falls, you will likely lose money. If you invest in a real estate fund and that market tanks like it did recently, you will lose money. That’s just the nature of investing. The good news is that most of the time stocks, bonds, and real estate are good investments. And your best investment vehicle for participating is mutual funds, because they deal with the investment details for you.
If you invest in a balanced variety of funds and don’t pay too much in charges and fees, you can be a successful investor by simply investing in mutual funds. These funds are the best chance you’ve got to make money investing and get ahead financially as an average or new investor. Now you know where your best investment options are.
It’s now up to you to either find a good financial planner you can trust and afford, or to learn more about investments and investing on your own. There are plenty of good articles on the subject available to you, and at least one good investing guide I know of.
A retired financial planner, James Leitz has an MBA (finance) and 35 years of investing experience. For 20 years he advised individual investors, working directly with them helping them to reach their financial goals.