Mutual Funds for the New Investor – SLASX, HOLVX, TCEIX, AMAGX
December 23, 2006
Where should you make your first investment when just getting started investing?
If you don’t have a lot of money to invest and aren’t sure where to put it, don’t let that stop you from getting started! In the December edition of Smart Money magazine, Reshna Kapadia takes a quick look at four no-load mutual funds that have minimum initial investments, low fees, and have performed well in comparison to other similar funds:
1) Selected American Shares (SLASX)
Minimum investment -$1,000
Expense Ratio – 0.90%
5 Year Return – 9.34%
2) Homestead Value (HOVLX)
Minimum investment – $500
Expense Ratio – 0.76%
5 Year Return – 11.10%
3) TIAA-CREF Equity Index (TCEIX)
Minimum investment – $50 (If signed up for automatic investment of $50 month)
Expense Ratio – 0.26%
5 Year Return – 7.01%
4) Amana Growth (AMAGX)
Minimum investment – $250
Expense Ratio – 1.41%
5 Year Return – 11.38%
Thanks to Reshna Kapadia for doing the initial fund screen. I don’t have any experience with these funds but you can examine them in more detail with the links above, financial data shown is from Google Finance.
The new year is approaching, if you’ve been meaning to begin investing but haven’t gotten around to it yet, make a New Year’s resolution to research these funds and get started!
You can also check out my earlier discussion on Vanguard’s STAR fund for those just new to investing.
TIAA-CREF Equity Index (TCEIX) is now longer open to new investors. TIAA-CREF closed all their retail fund offerings early last year and opened equivalent funds as a Retail share class of their institutional funds. The new Equity Index is now TINRX.
The good news: expense ratio dropped to 0.24% from 0.26%.
The bad news: last I checked, the $0 initial, $50/month automatic investment plan is no longer available.
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[...] about these minimums. If you don’t have one of these plans, check out the investing options for new investors and investing rookies. While I was risking a few hundred dollars, I was also gaining priceless [...]