Making money through investing is not free. It might seem like free money because you don’t have to go to work, do your job, and then get a paycheck. In actuality you are paying for it with your time. When you decide you want to buy some stock, you don’t just think it and watch it happen. You have to find a broker, research the stock you want, and pay a commission. That is not free.
One of the easiest types of investments are mutual funds. With a mutual fund several to hundreds of people pool their money together. A fund manager uses this money to buy lots of different stocks and/or bonds. With some mutual funds, you have to pay a commission, usually as a percentage. For example, if you earned 9% this year and they charge a 2% commission, you will only earn 7%. On the other hand, you could invest in no-load funds and pay no commissions.
There are many obvious and not so obvious advantages to no-load funds. When you don’t pay a commission, you save money. Also, the money you save is purchasing you more investment which also earns you more money.
With investing, you put your money to work for you. If you invest more, your more will earn more. With no-load funds, you get to put all the money you invest to work.
Investing also can cost you a lot of your time. When you buy a stock, you shouldn’t just choose one out of thin air, you should put several hours into researching it. This is a cost of several hours for each stock. If you don’t do the research, you are increasing the risk and possibly limiting the amount of money you’ll make.
There is yet another time costing activity to investing directly in stocks. You need to know how to invest and how to research stocks. This is going to take quite a bit of time and learning. Once you get going, this time will reduce, but you’ll always be honing your skill.
When you invest in mutual funds, your fund manager chooses the stocks for you. They research the firms, put in their time, and use their expertise to effectively diversify your portfolio. The only time you have to spend is choosing the mutual fund. This is usually a one time thing because you don’t need to continue to diversify your portfolio as your fund manager is.
If you want to spend a lot of money on fees and commission for loaded funds, you can, but it’s likely they won’t earn that much more money and they might even earn you less after the fees. If you are interested in having a well diversified portfolio that is very easy and cheap, get a mutual fund.
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