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By Michael Rubin, About.com Guide to Retirement Planning

Index Funds: Be like the market

Friday July 3, 2009
Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of mutual funds: actively managed funds and index funds. Actively managed funds are run by investors managers who make frequent buy and sell decisions with the specific intent of beating a certain market average. Index funds, on the other hand, are significantly more stable in terms of what they own: the index that they track. As such, index funds will always perform microscopically poorer than the relevant index, since they subtract some operating expenses. On the other hand, actively managed funds may beat or under-perform the return garnered by the benchmark index, in many cases by a significant margin. Over the long-term, very few professional managers consistently beat their index. Yet some still do. How do you prefer to invest?
Comments
July 5, 2009 at 3:43 pm
(1) P Antonee says:

before you start planning to retire, you should read “Aging,A Lifelong Trek to Nirvana” found at Nostawltd.com/catalogue.it contains vital information about aging.

July 8, 2009 at 7:44 pm
(2) eugene Tunitskiy says:

You absolutely right about nobody beat index. But if ask “How do you prefer to invest?” My answer is I prefer index annuity it is much better than just index fund because guaranty and more gain . Nobody can beat index annuity. If best product for now in combination safety and gain. Sincerely Eugene.

July 10, 2009 at 1:50 pm
(3) Chris says:

Buyer beware of the index annuity. There are many “hiccups” that can occur to take away the guarantees if you are not careful.

July 15, 2009 at 3:32 pm
(4) David says:

Bc of their low fees I have been using Vanguard’s 2020 Target Fund that is all indexes & bc it has stocks & bonds it has given a balanced return. I am also considering investing regular funds through VG using Index funds.

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