Pros And Disadvantages Of Mutual Funds

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The investment of money is essential to attaining many goals throughout our lives. Parents are able to carefully save and grow money for their children’s future education, individuals can put away money that will eventually be utilized for the purchase of a new home, yacht or business, and families can save for the golden years of life—retirement. Whatever the end goal may be, there are many investment vehicles that can help get you there. One such vehicle is a mutual fund. Mutual funds, as defined by the SEC, are companies that pool money from many investors and invest that money in stocks, bonds and other securities or assets. Because of this indirect path to investment, a mutual fund serves as a financial intermediary. Like most …show more content…

The first is an open-end fund, where investors can buy shares in the mutual fund and the fund will invest their money. For this type, there are, technically, an unlimited amount of shares that can be purchased. The second type is the closed-end fund, where the number of shares is fixed and does not change over time. So, were an investor looking to buy shares, they would have to purchase them from an investor looking to sell those shares (Dolvin, Jordan and Miller 104—05). Usually, mutual funds are only under the category of open-end; however, under certain circumstances-- when a fund grows too large--managers can decide to close a fund from new investors. (Dolvin, Jordan and Miller …show more content…

For mutual funds, there are sales charges, 12b-1 fees, management fees, and trading costs. When it comes to sales charges, there are both front-end charges—those fees that are charged when one buys the mutual fund shares—and back-end charge, which is charged when one sells the mutual fund shares. 12b-1 fees are named after the SEC rules that regulate them. Such fees are used to recover the company’s costs for advertising and other services rendered to shareholders and others. These fees can be rather covert; however, an investor should be aware of this—as well as every other—fee. The management fee is a flexible fee that compensates managers for how well they do. If a fund has high returns, managers generally charge more. Finally, trading costs are set up so that managers can recover trading costs. Mutual fund managers collect money, and then put that money into action. Putting that money into action will, inevitably, require paying a trader. In general, these fees vary, partially based on a funds turnover rate—the rate at which a fund trades its total assets (Dolvin, Jordan, and Miller 108-109). With all of this information about mutual funds, let us take a closer look at a particular

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