Results for Index Funds

The great debate continues, and this is what you need to know.

Index funds are low-cost, all-in-one investments that track a specific financial market and are designed to diversify your money and minimize risk.

Build a portfolio that balances index funds with actively managed funds to get the best returns over time.

After 40 years, one of the most important concepts in investing is still a mystery to most of us. Here are some myths and misconceptions about indexing and index funds.

When the markets get choppy, it may pay to have a plan for your investments.

Once I finally paid off my debt and generally got my financial life in order, I was ready to start investing. Everything I read told me to check out index funds, so I did. Sure enough, they’re pretty awesome tool with a handful of advantages for new and seasoned investors.

Investing in index funds is a lot like fishing. You drag a net around a lake. You sit back in your boat, enjoy a nice drink and you can sell what you catch. Investing in actively managed funds is much

In 2012, index funds accounted for 24% of assets under management, growing four times faster than all other funds, according to Morningstar. A major draw to index funds is their low expense ratios.…

Low costs
Beating the market is extremely difficult
There are plenty of people out there worried about index funds but most of their claims are likely unfounded or misunderstandings about the way things work in the markets. The ones I don’t buy are that indexing gives you “mediocre” or “average” results (it doesn’t – it almost guarantees you’ll be top quartile after fees) or that there are fewer investors allocating capital correctly (most of the money coming out of active funds was being…

Here's a provocative piece in today's WSJ about index funds and how they are bad for corporate governance. This is one of many articles in a long line of

Here's an interesting claim I see more and more often: "The nature of ETFs and passive investment is worth noting. A vanilla S&P 500 ETF, for example,

“Wow,” you say, “Your financial advisor has a really nice car.” Your friend smiles. She knows what’s coming next. “I guess you help make those massive car payments.” She just smiles again. She

Outside of a 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plan, do you invest? If you answered no, you are not alone. Investing is often seen as the domain of the wealthy, not for people who only have a small amount of money left over at the end of month. True, brokers may not be rushing to roll out the red carpet for you if you can only invest $300 a year, but there are many investment choices for those of us without a lot…

Today’s post is brought to you by friend, and fellow personal finance blogger, Jacob. Jacob is a Ph.D. student, husband and one half of the Cash Cow Couple . He and his wife and paid off nearly $20,000 of debt in 8 months on a very modest salary. They now teach others how to do the same
I finished my bachelors degree a short while ago and my wife completed hers less than a year ago. Since then we have been working hard…

Ask Real Deal Retirement
I don’t think most people appreciate how much inflation can affect their retirement plans. Can you explain how inflation can erode purchasing power during retirement and tell us what do to deal with this threat
—Peter
Inflation hasn’t been front-of-mind lately probably because it’s been quiescent in recent years, cruising along with some variations at a relatively tame pace of less than 2% a year over the past decade .
And if you look at a common gauge of…

Warren Buffett has made a reputation for himself as the world’s greatest investor, and he’s a big fan of index funds. Funds are basically one big investment made up of a bunch of individual ones. If you’re into lazy, set-and-forget investing, you’re familiar with them. But how do you find out exactly what’s in your fund?

Consider giving them real money to invest in stocks, but not without sharing these three stock-market truths, says Wall Street Journal columnist Brett Arends. A basic choice is to focus on individual stocks or index funds. There are pluses and minuses to each.

New research finds that if active managers had the discipline to avoid clinging to their positions for too long, they could easily beat index funds.

During the last decade, passive U.S. equity strategies attracted $1.1 trillion in new inflows, while investors withdrew $800 billion from actively managed mutual funds.1 Today, index funds account for over one-third of all mutual fund and ETF assets.2 While index funds certainly have a place in investment portfolios, providing low-cost, benchmark-like returns, some caution is warranted, particularly in the following instances
1. Concentrated Positions
Some investors…