DYI Investing, Budgeting, and Retirement Planning

Full disclosure: I do not have a single bond or bond fund in my portfolio. Nevertheless, there is a case to be made in some very specific circumstances to own a bond or t-bill. This article is not specifically about whether and when you should own bonds or not, but rather about whether you should own corporate bonds. There are a few kinds of major bonds: US government bonds (sold by the US government), municipal bonds (sold by local governments), and corporate bonds (sold by corporations). The corporate bond above all others works against the interest of the bond holder , in almost all respects it benefits the corporation, and often supports the higher returns of the corporation's stock holders to the detriment of the bond holder. Lack of Compound Returns First, let's take a look at problems common to all bonds. There is a major difference in the returns coming from investments in the stock market versus investments in a bond. When the stock market gains returns, it is always c...

A mutual fund is a type of investment that hold stocks, bonds, or other securities and is often professionally managed. When owning a mutual fund, the investor essentially owns a portion of all the securities within the mutual fund. The focus of the mutual fund is defined in the fund prospectus which outlines the purpose of the fund, the rules by which the fund is managed, how fees are managed, and other information. Things to Know There are a few things to know when researching mutual funds. The Symbol - This is a series of five letters, always ending in X. The symbol is used much the way a stock symbol is used for quick reference. The X at the end of the symbol indicates that the mutual fund is and open ended fund, meaning anyone can buy into or sell out of the fund at any time. The NAV  - Net Asset Value is the cost to purchase a single share of a mutual fund. For an individual stock, the stock price is what is paid to own the stock. In a mutual fund, the NAV is what is paid. ...

People may think that  as they get closer to retirement that there may be less and less reason to invest in their retirement. Especially if they haven't started saving already. This is partly due to the the common mantra that investing in stocks or bonds is a long term endeavor. Therefore, if they have not begun to save for retirement by the time they are 60 or even older, then they will just have to figure out a way to live on Social Security alone. Fortunately, this is not the case. Since the average retiree will live an additional 18 to 28 after retirement, any amount of investment savings at any age will have an impact during retirement and improve a retiree's quality of life. The Life Expectancy of a Retiree According to the CDC, the average lifespan of someone living in the United States is 78.8 years. The average lifespan of a female is 81 and a male is 76. But these stats are grossly misleading for those about to retire. The reality is that those who live to retirement ...

There are any number of ways to invest: stocks, bonds, t-bills, real estate, stock market indexes, ETFs, mutual funds, and many others. Every method of investment carries risk and the possibility of losing money. Before investing in any instrument, an investor should carefully weigh their understanding of the investment as well as the risk involved. No one should invest in an instrument that they do not understand. Mutual funds are actively managed funds that may focus in just about any kind of investment vehicle such as stocks, bonds, real estate, or many others. I prefer to invest in mutual funds that focus on stock market securities. There are well over 10,000 mutual funds to select from. A huge majority of those mutual funds under-perform compared to the average performance of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. What then is the best way to select a high growth mutual fund and which funds make it into the top ten? Below are the top ten mutual funds that meet the selection criteria li...