Help deciding on an investment group please!?

Question

Im 20 and new to investing, I'm interested in investing in mutal funds. I've looked into Fidelity witch has a $2500 min to open an acount and has no monthly fee's for mutal funds. I would like to invest in $2500 a year for the next 4 years in

1 in a growth income fund

2 in a mid cap equity fund

3 in a International fund

4 in a Aggressive growth fund

Is this a good stratigie for a young invester? Also is there a better company then Fidelity I should look into for investing in mutal funds?

Answer 1

You'll get all kinds of opinion answers, but also look at Vanguard (generally the lowest fees) and T. Rowe Price (best managed).  If you are investing outside of a retirement account, make sure you look at the tax impact of the funds you pick.

Answer 2

I might be biased, but I have been pretty happy with my brokerage account at Smith Barney. My money goes there, and unless I am actively trading (which fom what it sounds like you are not going to do much selling right now), my "financial advisor" only makes money on the amounts he manages for me, so the more I make, some from his suggestions, some from my decisions, the more he makes. While some of the minimums remain the same, they also have access to more vehicles (institutionally traded funds with minimums in the millions to join) and you get access to their online research materials and performance data.

I'm sure it is similar at all of the retail brokerage houses, as well. I used to buy direct but I am now pretty smitten with having someone there to watch over me. Just a suggestion.

Answer 3

you being only 20 should go very aggressive. fidelity is a great company, but every investment company is taking hits right now with markets volatility. when your young like you are invest and stay the coarse even if you loss a little,the market will right itself many times before you retire. don't invest aggressively and pull out because you hit a bump in the road,if you do it will hurt you in the end. Talk to a specialist, CPA,  Investment Broker, etc they can help.

Answer 4

Fidelity is considered one of the better fund companies for investors, the only company that may have the same reputation in the mutual fund industry would be Vanguard.

Without having more information about your personal information, current income and other data such as risk tolerance, martial status, and demographics it would be very inappropriate for me or any other person to provide specific investment information in this type of media

I understand your allocation of assets, but I would reconsider your allocation to a growth fund. (maybe precious metals would be better for you).   At your age you should consider having a more aggressive plan

Both Mutual Fund companies as well as ETFs have an entire array of products many will fit your needs. You can go to the MSN.Money website

http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp  it has an entire section on mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds.  Read about the various products and in doing so you will be getting investment ideas and at the same time educating yourself about investing.  

If you find that ETFs may fit your investment needs, Fidelity would be the better of the two firms, since Fidelity is also a full service broker/dealer which provides access to many other security products as well as other mutual funds/

Why not contact both Vanguard and Fidelity for more information  The service and information they provide is all free and you will find it helpful.

Answer 5

Van Gaurd is great, Fidelity is good too. Look into schwab

Also, CGMFX its a focus fund.

Answer 6

Fidelity is good solid company.  Just keep in mind that while there are no fee to open and maintain the actual account the Mutual Funds themselves WILL have management and administration fee's.

Your asset allocation looks good, simple and effective.

Some alternative to Mutual Funds are ETF's which hold underlying stocks like a mutual fund yet trade like a stock.  The advantage to them is that they are passively managed and carry low fee's.  For example your typical mutual fund may have an annual fee of 80-100 bps and an EFT will have 5-20 bps of annual fee's.

Check out http://ishares.com or http://vanguard.com and do a little research.

Also if you wanna develop a more robust asset allocation try this website

http://dev.bpanalytics.appshosting.com/p...

Good luck