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Old 07-24-2007, 11:06 AM
Eihli Eihli is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: 450k hands breakeven
Posts: 3,450
Default Re: 21 y/o needing advice over index/mutual funds.

If you had browsed the forum for more than 30 seconds you'd have seen numerous posts offering the exact advice you are looking for.

Vanguard Global Equity Fund
https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/...FundIntExt=INT

or
Vanguard Star Fund
https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/...FundIntExt=INT

You can follow the links on those pages to learn about opening an account with them.


Mutual funds are actively managed funds. The managers try to specialize in certain things to meet the needs of the people investing. For example, Vanguard has dividend yield funds that tries to invest in companies that will show good return with high dividends. They also have a Target Retirement 2020 fund. This fund would change whichs stocks/bonds it holds and move from a more aggressive growth strategy early on to more defensive investments as the target date is reached. In exchange for having someone manage the fund you pay a fee which can be hefty depending on who you go through. Vanguard is well-known for their low fees.

An index is a group of companies that tries to track how the market, or a certain section of the market, is doing. There are total stock market indexes like the S&P 500, or indexes tracking sections like oil and gas or utilities, like the Dow Jones Utilities Index.

An index fund isn't managed, it's just buying a part of every company in an index. There are basically no fees.
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