Early in my investing career, I put my money and my trust in the hands of mutual fund managers. But when I became a professional in the industry, I learned an important lesson about investing and money management. Never delegate your money management. I quickly learned that mutual fund managers are in the capital acquisition and retail client retention business. The first job of these fund managers is to acquire as much capital from retail clients as possible. That means they need to create lots of different funds for all that money to go into. The retail equity fund management industry has been quite creative in building countless funds distinguished by geography, style or sector. You can find U.S. growth funds, European income funds, global technology funds, etc. As an investor, you're enticed into buying lots of funds with the promise that you'll be more diversified that way. More funds of course means more fees. Your dollars get spread ever thinner. After all, if each fund owns 50 stocks and you put your money into 10 funds, that's 500 stocks! This is not in the best interests of any investor. It forces you to overdiversify and pay lots of fees... which results in poorer performance. What else can you expect from owning 500 stocks and paying the fees for them on top of everything else? Locked In The second thing I learned about mutual fund managers is that they have to retain clients - as any business does. It's in their interest to minimize your losses, not maximize your returns. This means they will try to lock you into investments for five years (the typical recommended minimum holding period so many mutual funds promote). None of this is necessarily suited to you as an individual investor. Shouldn't you be told the risk and reward of each stock and be able to make your own decision about whether it fits your risk appetite? When you put your money in a mutual fund, you have no control over what is bought, how much is bought, how diversified it is or how much risk it takes on. Your individual needs and goals are left unmet. And here's the biggest problem with these fund managers... |
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