This is a good article on investing mistakes. He mentions the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) fund we just bought into based on Clarke Howard's advice.
That's a good article. I think most people should have most of their money in mutual funds, but just a handful of them. I put most of mine in Vanguard 500 index (VFINX). Then I have some small cap stuff (really more midcap) in Fidelity Small Cap (FSLCX) which had an outstanding year last year. But I also feel like it is a good idea to have money in foreign stocks so I put some in Janus Overseas (JAOSX) until they started underperforming when I took half of that and put it in Fidelity Diversified International (FDIVX) which has mildly outperformed Janus. The key isn't which company or which fund you invest in but they type of fund. I think I've got a pretty good combination. Back in the early days of AOL, Vanguard had a thing called Vanguard University which was a series of articles about investing. That's been a good foundation. They very much emphasize index funds and the resulting low costs and tax advantages of low turnover. I still think managed funds can do better with small cap and foreign assets.
Then I play around with stocks. Right now I've got Oracle, Coke, SBC (5% dividend yield), Delta, and Microsoft. But combined those make up less than 20% of my investments compared to 36% in Vanguard Index alone.
I don't like bond funds because they are so sensitive to interest rates, but I do have some money in Vanguard Short Term Corporate (VFSTX) which is not affected as much by rate swings (certainly they'll do nothing but go up so bond funds will go down) and provides a yield of a point or two more than money markets.
Leave a comment
About this Entry
This page contains a single entry by Jeb published on September 2, 2004 9:36 PM.
That's a good article. I think most people should have most of their money in mutual funds, but just a handful of them. I put most of mine in Vanguard 500 index (VFINX). Then I have some small cap stuff (really more midcap) in Fidelity Small Cap (FSLCX) which had an outstanding year last year. But I also feel like it is a good idea to have money in foreign stocks so I put some in Janus Overseas (JAOSX) until they started underperforming when I took half of that and put it in Fidelity Diversified International (FDIVX) which has mildly outperformed Janus. The key isn't which company or which fund you invest in but they type of fund. I think I've got a pretty good combination. Back in the early days of AOL, Vanguard had a thing called Vanguard University which was a series of articles about investing. That's been a good foundation. They very much emphasize index funds and the resulting low costs and tax advantages of low turnover. I still think managed funds can do better with small cap and foreign assets.
Then I play around with stocks. Right now I've got Oracle, Coke, SBC (5% dividend yield), Delta, and Microsoft. But combined those make up less than 20% of my investments compared to 36% in Vanguard Index alone.
I don't like bond funds because they are so sensitive to interest rates, but I do have some money in Vanguard Short Term Corporate (VFSTX) which is not affected as much by rate swings (certainly they'll do nothing but go up so bond funds will go down) and provides a yield of a point or two more than money markets.