Mutual fund

China Play: A Comparison of FXI, PGJ, and MCHFX

Posted by Sun on December 7, 2006 (14) Comment

I have been investing in China for more than three years and the first China related financial product I purchased was Mattews China Fund (MCHFX) held in my brokerage account with Scottrade. I sold all my position at the end of 2003 when Scottrade started to charge commissions for even the non-load funds. Shortly after, [...]

Categories : China, ETF, Investing, Mutual fund Tags:

Am I Paying Too Much for My 401(k)?

Posted by Sun on November 12, 2006 (5) Comment

An article in yesterday's USAToday prompted to check the fees I paid for those funds in my 401(k) plan. Unlike mutual funds holding in my taxable accounts, in which I have the flexibility to choose from perhaps hundreds of funds in the same category from as many companies, the number of funds in my 401(k) [...]

Categories : 401(k), Investing, Mutual fund, Personal finance Tags:

Vanguard Reopens the Door of Strategic Equity Fund to New Investors

Posted by Sun on November 10, 2006 Comments Off

If you look to add some mid-cap funds into your portfolio. Here's the good news. According to Morningstar.com, Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund (VSEQX) (a Mid-blend fund with an EP of 0.82% and YTD return 10.31%, 3-year return 14.89% and 5-year return 14.50%), which was closed to new investers in April 2006 due to asset size [...]

Categories : Investing, Mutual fund Tags:

How often Do You Check Your Investment Accounts’ Balance?

Posted by Sun on October 26, 2006 Comments Off

Every day? Every week? or Every month?
When I first started investing in 2001, I was so eager to see how my investments (mutual funds) were doing, I just couldn't wait till 6 o'clock in the eventing to get the closing prices. So I entered the top 10 or 15 holdings of each mutual funds I [...]

Categories : Investing, Mutual fund, Stock Tags:

September 2006 Score Card — Part IV: Asset Allocation

Posted by Sun on October 9, 2006 Comments Off

This is the last item on the September 2006 score card: asset allocations of the taxable accounts.
In addition to investing regularly in our retirement accounts (401(k)s, Roth IRAs), I also have some stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds in taxable accounts. Right now, these accounts serve as supplements to our retirement investments. When it comes [...]

Categories : About me, Investing, Mutual fund, Net worth, Stock Tags:

“How to Invest When You’re Young”

Posted by Sun on October 4, 2006 Comments Off

This is the title of an article from Kiplinger's Personal Finance. The article suggested several options to start investing with a small amount of money (less than $500). According to the article, youngsters can start stock investment with Sharebuilder, which charges $4 for each transaction. For the long-term, the article brought up a couple of [...]

Categories : Investing, Mutual fund Tags:

Net Worth Update

Posted by Sun on October 4, 2006 (2) Comment

One of my mutual fund holdings, Columbia Strategic Investor Z (CSVFX), lost more than $2.60 in NAV on September 20th. At that time, I thought it must be due to income distributions. But I forgot to check my account from their website and didn't take the distribution into consideration when calculating my September net worth.
Last [...]

Categories : About me, Investing, Mutual fund, Net worth Tags:

Mutual Fund Distributions: What are They?

Posted by Sun on September 28, 2006 (4) Comment

There’s an article in the T. Row Price Investor magazine I received today on mutual fund distributions. If you are a new mutual fund investor or planning to invest into mutual funds, it could used as fundamentals about mutual fund investing. So I summarized and expanded the article a little bit for this post.
Ok, what [...]

Categories : Investing, Mutual fund Tags:

Dogs of the Dow?

Posted by Sun on September 22, 2006 Comments Off

On my way to work this morning, I heard Bloomberg radio (yes, I alsmost never dailed any music channel) mentioned a mutual fund that has a 12-month return of 18% (maybe the number I remembered is a little bit off, but it's in that area). The return was great but I think there are plenty [...]

Categories : Investing, Mutual fund Tags:

Understanding M*’s Star Rating

Posted by Sun on September 16, 2006 (4) Comment

If you are a mutual fund investor, chances are you have seen Morningstar’s star rating every where, on fund family’s website, on Yahoo! Finance (where you can find a comprehensive list of funds and fund families), even on funds’ ads. Common sense tells us a fund with five stars should outperform a two-star fund, the [...]

Categories : Investing, Mutual fund Tags:
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