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Posts Tagged “

index funds

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investing

Should I Invest In My Company's 401(k) Or Get It Alone?

Crapple writes:


I'm 27, looking to start planning for retirement. My company has an arrangement through The Hartford group for our 401K and I read your article on Fund Level Expenses and how the broker will be earning compound interest on MY compound interest. I also ran across this article while researching:(and it also links to a Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer that might be handy for other Consumerist readers). The article is talking about getting yourself involved in an Index Fund that would have fee's of around .19% or so and going it alone.

Most of the 16 investment options I have through The Hartford have a fee of over 1% (many over 1.25%)...

More »

2:58 PM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Ben Popken
5,372 views, 60 comments

Latest by zenmeta4: To address the primary question, you should first maximize your matching contributions. This will more than cover the additional expense. Another thing to consider is if your 401k plan is not offering a variety of investments and/or some low-cost investments, then more »

investing

Index Funds Vs Fees Behind The Financial Advisers Curtain

"Guide to Transparent Investing" is a 53 page PDF about how financial advisers are ripoffs and you can do all your investing by putting your money in index funds. The basic principles they promote are to figure out how long you want to invest for, pick a portfolio based on your timeline and risk tolerance, and put the money in index funds. Set it, forget it, and spend more time doing the important things in life, like gardening and getting your scuba diving certification.

Transparent Investing [Official Site]

12:08 PM on Mon Oct 15 2007
By Ben Popken
1,156 views, 4 comments

Latest by Myron: If you are at all interested in building a diversified portfolio of index funds please read "The Four Pillars of Investing" by William J. Bernstein. more »

mutual funds

What Are "Expense Ratios?"

For the new investor considering mutual funds, one important comparison basis is their expense ratio. More »
investing

Comparing Index ETFs and Mutual Funds

We understand that investing in index exchange trade funds (ETF) can be a good option for beginning investors, but what if you're also looking at mutual funds, and you want to compare purchase costs between the two? More »

3:04 PM on Tue May 22 2007
By Ben Popken
3,102 views, 13 comments

personal finance

Financial Advisors Often Give Poor, Expensive Investing Advice

Want to get some investment advice that is expensive and doesn't perform any better than other, less costly options? If so, ask your broker or financial advisor for investing advice. They're much more likely to point you toward an investment with a "load" — a fee that ranges in price but generally runs 3% to 5% of your investment's value — simply for them "recommending" it (some would say "selling" it is more accurate.) More »

2:22 PM on Thu Apr 19 2007
By Ben Popken
2,641 views, 19 comments

investing

An Argument For Index Funds

FreeMoneyFinance has a nice piece on why he invests mainly in index funds. More »