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Originally posted by Daval
Bobmsmythe - I look forward to your opinions as well on this, but I will offer my own insight to Hal's question.
Hal - anything you do in 'the market' has some risk attached to it. But a good way that I have found to earn a little more is with Mutual funds. Pick a solid mutual fund with a low management fee, yet has a solid and steady rate of return over the last 5 years (don't just pick something that has skyrocketed in the last 3 months or even 12 months). Look for something with a good mixture of stocks in various sectors would be my opinion.
Funds that just specialize in precious metals, or technology or a specific sector can do extremely well at times and you can make a lot of money with they (25 - 80+%), but the risk level is very high and you can lose the same amount. Hence a nice diversefied balanced fund.
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Generally good advice. Don't assume that a fund that's done well in the last 12 months will continue to do so. There's a disclaimer "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."
If you're just starting out, I'd recommend against sector-specific funds. Instead, putting some money into a small- or mid-cap fund can get you some added growth potential without risking quite so much. This is *especially* true when talking about precious metals-- this is the only specific advice I'm going to handle on this board: metals have had a great run up. As soon as the dollar starts to recover, they're gonna get hammered. Anybody who tells you different is what we call a "goldbug"-- those loonies that invest only in gold and high-powered automatic weapons.
Bob