What is the difference between a mutual fund and an IRA?
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Don't buy mutual funds for the long run. They're not good investments. The problem is the fees that are involved. A mutual fund is a pool of money from a number of investors which is then invested and managed by a fund manager and usually his/her employees. This inherently means you get lower returns than if you bought stocks.\n\nThe reason is, the fund manager and employees all have to get paid, which cuts into your earnings. This makes them less attractive, so they often pay advisers to recommend them. This further cuts into your earnings. As a result, stocks are a much smarter option. The IRA isn't a bad idea, and there are different kinds of IRAs you can invest in.
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Your question makes me want to barf. Don't look for a quick hit. You'll eventually lose it all.\n\nOpen a Roth IRA and put $3,000 in a mutual fund. Put more money in each month thereafter.
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You can open accounts at Vanguard or Fidelity, both have lower expense ratios compared to the competition. Most funds have a minimum initial investment of $2500, unless it's for an IRA. You can set up automatic deductions to buy into the fund monthly.\n\nAlternately, you can buy ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). There may be an ETF that tracks a specific mutual fund you are looking at. Vanguard has a huge list on their web site. You can buy the ETFs through a discount online broker like scottrade.com or etrade.com. You pay per transaction but the maintenence fees are usually slightly lower than buying an actual mutual fund.
823551
Mutual funds let you start with low amounts. If not knowledgeable an index mutual fund is best + is cheapest in internal cost. Schwab.com or 1 of the others makes opening an account easy. If no IRA - open 1 1st. I would chose a global index fund right now\n. SWINX if going with schwab
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2 ways to make money.  First if you buy the shares at 10 dollars and they jump in price to 13 you made 3 dollars per share. The second way is when you own shares say of GM and they decide to pay a dividend of 1 dollar per share. You would receive a dollar for every share you own. Mutuals are better in general for novice investors do to investing in many companies into one fund which makes your risk less.  Also they pool many people together to invest which makes expenses much less do to more people sharing the expense.  If you interested in funds.  Vanguard is a great way to begin.  They have some very nice funds and their expense ratios are the best around.
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Speed of information retrieval primarily. Then the ability to compare in a matter of seconds the historic gains and losses in bull and bear market conditions, the projections of future gains/losses, the relative risk/reward of funds, and the ranking of a fund within its peer group.\n\nThe advantage of mutual funds over direct stock purchases is that in selecting stocks you need to study and compare the operations and returns of thousands of individual companies, where with mutual funds you are hiring the fund manager to do that for you, and all you need to do is select an area of fund investment (small cap, large cap,...), and select a fund manager that has a good track record for investing the monies of the fund. How do you know if the manager is any good? By how well his fund has performed in the past compared to other funds of the same class.
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Mutual funds are a "basket of stocks" that allow you to have an ownership in a more diversified way. Check out ETF's a newer wrinkle on fund investing.\n\nread education links at bobbrinker.com
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The main difference is that ETFs track an index, and for various reasons they trade at almost exactly their NAV (Net Asset Value, the value of the stocks held by the fund).\n\nClosed end funds are like ETFs in that their shares trade on the open market, but they don't follow an index. They are "actively managed." For various reasons, they may trade at a "premium" (the share price is higher than the NAV) or a "discount."
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Don't confuse the term "broker" with fund or investment. I can have my IRA with my broker, Merril Lynch and invested in mutual funds from Oppenheimer and American.\n\nIt sounds like your IRA is invested in an international fund that is underperforming its peers. First, I hope just a portion of your IRA assets are in this investment. You should be diversified across several asset categories, not just international equities. It is the job of your broker to help you determine what the right mix of assets are and which investments to use to fit into the allocation.\n\nIf you are not happy with your broker's advice in addition to the performance of your international fund, then I would consider changing brokers. However, if you like your broker but not your international fund, tell him/her about your displeasure.
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In simplest terms, mutual funds are just groups of investments.  They can be stocks, or bonds, or a combination of the two.  They can even be investments in real estate (REITs).\n\nIn an active mutual fund, a fund manager decides what to purchase for the fund.  In a stock fund, the manager picks the stocks to buy in hopes that the stocks will go up.  In bond fund, he picks bonds.  In some funds, the manager has the option of choosing between both stock and bonds.  He may even decide buy nothing if he can't find anything worth buying, keeping cash on hand until he finds something worthwhile to buy.\n\nIn an index fund, a fund manager's main job is just to buy the stocks or bonds in an index.  For example, in an S&P 500 stock fund, the manager's job is to buy all the stocks in S&P 500 and hold them.
535179
mutual funds ..as the name suggests is pool of funds contributed by large no. of individuals which is invested by financial experts in different fields to give a good retuen on the investment to the contributers. A company, trust, financial instituion as the case may be in a country invites funds from individuals and hires experts to invets the same into equity, debt, commodities and even real estate to generate profitable returns on them and investors thus gain from their investment as the profits made on investments are distributed among different contibuters to the fund in the ratio of their contribution. thus mutual funds help small investors to gain advantages of diversified portfolio and gain from specialised knowledge of experts who invest the money. to know more email me at siderminator@yahoo.co.in
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Individual Retirement Account, if your money is before taxes you can contribute to a traditional IRA, this means you earn interest on the untaxed money. You are taxed when you make take the money out at retirement. Roth IRA, you take money that has already been taxed and are able to draw from it at retirement, without taxes. This is rumored to have been named for Ira Cohen, an IRS actuary who was working with them back in 1974. You can go to just about any bank, credit union, or find a financial advisor to explain in detail all aspects, what is allowed, what is not allowes (such as drawing out your money before age 59.5).
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A mutual fund is an open end investment company under the Investment Company Act.\n\nIn other words, it is a fund that continuously offers its shares and continuously redeems them to meet an investment purpose.  \n\nAn example might help.  XYZ Fund has, as its investment purpose, a duty to invest at least 65% of its assets in foreign company stocks.  It has 1,253,612 shares on July 1 valued at 10.03 per share.  On July 2nd, Mr and Mrs Smith send $1000 to buy shares in XYZ Fund.  The value per share at the close of business was 10.05 per share on July 2nd.  On July 3rd, their shares are purchased at $1000/$10.05 for 99.502 shares.  Mutual funds issue fractional shares.  On July 3rd, the fund now has 1,253,711.502 shares.  The price on July 3rd fell dramatically to $9.57 per share due to a fall in the SENSEX market.  This causes panic for the August family who call on July 5th, due to the holiday, to sell their 953.26 shares.  The value of the fund at the close of July 5th was 9.03 per share.  On July 8th, due to the weekend, the August family is sent a check for 8607.94.  The fund now has1,252,758.242 shares.  The value due to continued slide is now 8.96 per share.  The value of the Smith's investment is now $891.53.\n\nUnmentioned above is the concept of load and no-load.  A load fund pays a commission to a salesman out of our proceeds either when you buy or when you sell.  A no load fund pays an introduction fee to a broker to open your shares but it is paid as a general operating expense of all pre-existing shareholders and is hidden in the disclosures.
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What type of investment is going to held in the IRA? Stocks, mutual funds, cds?\n\nThis not a pyramid scam. From what I hear they are a reputable company. \nYou should get an IRA for yourself, it whether it is with them or another company. The most important thing is the investments being held in IRA. You want to look at past performance of the investment as well as the consistency of the investment. Look for one with consistently good returns not necessarily the highest return last year.
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An IRA is a tax advantaged plan allowed by the federal government. With an IRA you can invest in Stocks, Bonds, CD's etc.\n\nIf you can legally get into an IRA....  It's a good idea! I wouldn't suggest a CD however.  IRA's are for your retirement. Historically stocks have given a rate of return better than CD's.\n\nCheck into "regular" IRA's and ROTH IRA's......  If you have additional funds to invest (more than 5 years).....stocks (S&P 500 Index funds for example) would be a good start.
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Yes you can absolutely.  they are two different animals.  A traditional IRA is funded with before tax dollars and a Roth IRA is funded with after tax dollars. A disbursement from a traditional IRA is taxed, and disbursement from a Roth IRA is not.
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In simplest terms, mutual funds are just groups of investments. They can be stocks, or bonds, or a combination of the two. They can even be investments in real estate (REITs).\n\nIn an active mutual fund, a fund manager decides what to purchase for the fund. In a stock fund, the manager picks the stocks to buy in hopes that the stocks will go up. In bond fund, he picks bonds. In some funds, the manager has the option of choosing between both stock and bonds. He may even decide buy nothing if he can't find anything worth buying, keeping cash on hand until he finds something worthwhile to buy.\n\nIn an index fund, a fund manager's main job is just to buy the stocks or bonds in an index. For example, in an S&P 500 stock fund, the manager's job is to buy all the stocks in S&P 500 and hold them.