Should I invest in Mutual Funds?

Hello,
I am a College Student who has about $25,000 that I won't be needing to pay for college. I've been looking at several mutual funds (to be specific: OBIOX, VBMFX, FSCHX, MPYMX) and am considering investing about $5,000 in each.

My question is this: are mutual funds the best place for me to invest?

*I'm looking for an investment that I don't have to closely monitor once the money is invested.

Thankyou for any advice.

Srm0r4m4,

It is good to know you will not need the $25,000 tp pay for college. I trust that also means for college loans.

To answer your question, "are mutual funds the best place for me to invest?" depends on when you expect to have a need for the money. When that time is more than 5 years, then mutual funds may be a good choice.

Looking at the 4 funds you mention, two fall into the international group, OBIOX (International) and MPYMX (European). Probably one fund in the international group would be sufficient.

FSCHX is a sector fund, chemicals. Sector funds tend to need watching as the "hot sector" changes over time. The hot sector today is energy funds. That is not to say the chemical fund would not be a better choice, FSCHX has been doing well recently.

VBMFX is Vanguard's Total Bond Fund investing primarily in medium term bonds. For now that may be a good choice. Once interest rates begin to climb, a short term bond fund may be better.

Then you serve up this curve, "I'm looking for an investment that I don't have to closely monitor once the money is invested". Monitoring and changing funds when they perform poorly as compared to their pier funds is generally a way to always be invested in the best performing funds. But selecting the best funds today is a very time consuming task.

The best performing funds do change sometimes faster than we would care to know.
Take a look at Kiplingers 25 best funds today and compare it to their 25 best funds 12 months ago: http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2008/05/whatchanged.html?kipad_id=48

Depending on your time horizon, Kiplinger offers 3 porfolios for consideration: http://www.kiplinger.com/investing/kport/funds.html?kipad_id=48

If you want to put your investments on auto pilot, The VBMFX is a good choice for the bond portion of your investment.

For equities part of your investment I would suggest SMIFX or SMIVX or a combination of the 2. These are funds of funds, and the fund managers are monitoring about 2,000 funds trying to keep invested in the best performing funds in their pier group, across International, Small Company Growth, Small Company Value, Large Company Growth and Large Company Value funds.
Here is a link to learn more: http://www.smifund.com/

Here's what I'm thinking:

-I dropped MPYMX and kept OBIOX as my international Fund.
-I'll keep VMBFX as a steady index fund that I don't have to monitor too much, and on the flip-side, I'll keep and watch FSCHX.
-I've also been looking at OAKBX as another fund to invest in, its been performing well and would fulfill the equity part of my portfolio.

A quick question regarding those 3 different Kiplinger suggested portfolios:
Do I have to personally invest in each fund, or is there one fund/symbol I can invest in that would cover the entire suggested portfolio?

More generally:
Are Mutual Funds the best place to invest? I will need about $7,000 available over the next 4 years (invested in short-term stuff). I'm looking for a more long-term investment (like 10 years) for the other $13,000. I'm wondering if CD's or something else would be a better idea.

Thanks for your advice.

Here's what I'm thinking:

A quick question regarding those 3 different Kiplinger suggested portfolios:
Do I have to personally invest in each fund, or is there one fund/symbol I can invest in that would cover the entire suggested portfolio?

You must invest in the funds you select. There is no one symbol for these recommended funds.


More generally:
Are Mutual Funds the best place to invest?
Gee I wish I knew the answer to that question. Generally the answer is yes.


I will need about $7,000 available over the next 4 years (invested in short-term stuff). I'm looking for a more long-term investment (like 10 years) for the other $13,000. I'm wondering if CD's or something else would be a better idea.

Thanks for your advice.

For $13,000 here is another possibility, a fund of funds that trys to be invested in the best performing funds. No Load Fund X, tends to have a bit more risk than the SMIFX/SMIVX mentioned earlier.
http://www.fundx.com/customerhome.aspx

Thankyou for your investment advice, its been very helpful.

Hi. I am going to assume that that $25k will not be needed if something unexpected comes and you have money for general living/ entertainment expenses, because as a fairly recent college graduate, and a current grad school student, I know things come up.
So with those assumptions in mind, I would also suggest that you look into ETFs as well as mutual funds, as they have many benefits that mutual funds do not have, such as lower costs and tax benefits. Here is a link to an ETF directory that may be useful in your decision. http://www.etfmarketpro.com/etf-directory/
I wish I had thought about investing when I was in college... Good Luck!

Hello,
I am a College Student who has about $25,000 that I won't be needing to pay for college. I've been looking at several mutual funds (to be specific: OBIOX, VBMFX, FSCHX, MPYMX) and am considering investing about $5,000 in each.

My question is this: are mutual funds the best place for me to invest?

*I'm looking for an investment that I don't have to closely monitor once the money is invested.

Thankyou for any advice.

Look it depends on the Kind of return you are expecting after making the particular investment.Mutual Funds Investments are subject to market risks, so it is extremely important that you read the offer document carefully prior to making the investment. As for monitoring it is important that you consult a Fund Manager prior to selecting a Fund or your Assets because it is a fund manager who decides the performance of the Fund. To read more in detail click here (http://bestinvestments.wordpress.com/) .