"Gene E. Utterback, EA" <eagent[at]alliancetax.com> wrote in message
news:bup5mn$k8ge8$1[at]ID-215792.news.uni-berlin.de...
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Gene,

Great idea! Unfortunately, many people's minds are closed and aren't going
to accept that advice on its face. So be it.

Quite a few brokers have been sued for having closed minds, but they skipped
the due diligence step. Individual investors are on their own. The freedom
to screw up and lose money is part of the most important freedom we enjoy --
Economic Freedom.

Brent D. Gardner, ChFC
Chartered Financial Consultant
http://members.cox.net/brentdgardner1378/

"Be ever questioning. Ignorance is not bliss. It is oblivion. You don't go
to heaven if you die dumb. Become better informed. Learn from other's
mistakes. You could not live long enough to make them all yourself." - Hyman
George Rickover (1900-86), Admiral, US Navy, advocated development of
nuclear subs & ships

The Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant
(ChFC), designations owned and exclusively offered by The American College,
signify the highest standards of academic study and professional excellence
in the financial services industry.

"Gene E. Utterback, EA" <eagent[at]alliancetax.com> wrote in message news:<bup5mn$k8ge8$1[at]ID-215792.news.uni-berlin.de> ...

Gene,

It may not be the smartest thing but I try to diversify my savings and
investments.
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I would not be able to sleep at night if I was 100% stocks. I try to
do a 50-50 split and while I don't get the biggest gains neither have
I suffer big losses. With the new tax laws and inflation putting IRA
money in a CD works for me.
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Most of the funds I have looked at pick an index for comparison. The
thing is if the fund is underperforming it's closest index you would
be better off in the index paying the lower expenses. Hopefully the
fund manager will have different holdings that outperformed the index.
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I would never consider any kind of annuity inside an IRA. One outside
an IRA would make more sense.

Mike

In <d79c9222.0401220655.69cd99aa[at]posting.google.com> , u2musicmike wrote:
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Also see if the fund outperformed the indexes by investing in a market
sector that has done so and could be about to underperform the indexes.

Also see if a fund had their outperformance pretty much in a couple good
years when they could have been "juice pumping". By "juice pumping", a
mutual fund is invested in stocks that get bid up due to the fund having
money coming in to bid those stocks up with. So the fund brags about
outperforming the market and gets more money, so the manager gets a big
bonus. The fund hopes to sell the bid-up stocks at those high prices or
else it will probably underperform the market later on.

Most managed funds underperform total stock market index funds (among
funds that invest in USA stocks).

- Don Klipstein (don[at]misty.com)

"u2musicmike" <mwhite[at]aristotle.net> wrote in message
news:d79c9222.0401220655.69cd99aa[at]posting.google.com...
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While putting money into an IRA that invests in CDs will help save you from
the market downs, it also locks you out of the market ups. One of the
reasons CD issuers offer higher rates on longer term CDs is because they
know that while they are investing your money in higher risk investments,
historically they will do better over the longer term than what they have to
pay you on the CD.

And I would suggest you add at least another step to the way you pick a
mutual fund. Comparing any particular fund to how it performed against any
particular index is only helpful if you know how closely the fund's holdings
mirrored the index you are using for comparison. But perhaps you knew and
meant that was to be included in the analysis, I just wasn't sure from your
post.

If you are looking for long performance, have a decent time range (7 plus
years), and are risk averse you might consider a combined fixed/variable
annuity with guaranteed riders. These allow you to participate in market
ups while helping to protect you from market downs. The don't work for
everyone, but they are something that everyone should at least look at.

Gene E. Utterback, EA

John,

I had the same problem until recently. I ended up moving the IRA to
my credit union and spreading it over 1 to 5 years CD's.

This may not fit you but I could not put more money into the IRA
because I have a 401k. If you can put money in the IRA monthly, then
the stock market up and downs won't hurt as bad.

I think the best way to pick a mutual fund is to look at the 10 year
return to see if it out-performed the indexes, who the is manager, and
how long the manager has been there.

Mike


me63401[at]privacy.net wrote in message news:<tkev009qdnvbcl9pp9j56ult983u19t0qf[at]4ax.com> ...
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