Number of Funds?

Hello all,

As I move to diversify my portfolio I have identified 2 or 3 funds in different categories (small cap, international, etc). My question is, would you advise picking one fund (from each category) and investing only in them, or spreading my money around to multiple funds within each category?

Looking at these as long term investments

Thanks much!

what would be your reason for spreading around your money into various funds within each category?

There really is no pat answer here. Personally I prefer to keep things as simple as possible (ie fewer funds) all things being equal, but there's something to be said for a little more "spreading around," esp regarding more volatile areas like international or "specialty" (sector etc) funds.

I think this is a valid question esp. with his example of international........
Do we pick latin america as our international fund or do we pick a few international funds like latin amer., Japan, nordic OR do we just go more diverse in one fund like emerging markets or international global??????

I think it is a good question to debat on the forum.

I think you should buy a bunch of funds in each category that way when you look at all of your funds as a whole they will mimic the entire category. Somebody should create a fund based on that strategy.