Stop Buying Mutual Funds Easy Ways to Beat the Pros Investing On Your Own

by Heinzl, Mark J.

• ISBN13: 9780471646136
• ISBN10: 047164613X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-15
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Stop Buying Mutual Funds is the book that Bay Street still doesn't want you to read!For years, millions of Canadians have injected billions of dollars into mutual funds in the quest for better returns on their investments. But few investors realize that most Canadian equity mutual funds consistently underperform the TSE300- the key benchmark they're measured against.Stop Buying Mutual Funds explains why so many Canadian funds turn in such poor performances and offers a simple approach to beating the pros by investing on your own. Stop Buying Mutual Funds low-risk, low-maintenance system of do-it-yourself investing increases your chances of reaping long-term returns that beat most Canadian stock and bond mutual funds. Provides a low-fee do-it-yourself alternative to buying mutual funds. Shows you how you can create and build your own solid, low-risk and bond portfolio with Canadian and foreign investments. Tells you how to save thousands of dollars- or even hundreds of thousands of dollars- in feels over a lifetime of investing. Helps to maximize your investment returns both inside and outside of your RRSP. Offers practical advice for a range of investors, from the totally risk-averse to the more risk-tolerant. Completely revised and updated: statistics show that mutual funds are still well behind the indexes; discusses the emergence (finally!) of low-fee index funds in Canada; the fast-growing number of index stocks to choose from; and much more.

Author Biography

Mark Heinzl is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the Dow Jones Newswires in Toronto, and has previously written for The Globe and Mail. He has covered a broad range of Canadian business, finance and investment topics, including the stock, bond and commodity markets and industries such as mining, manufacturing, high-tech, consumer products and others.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

Acknowledgements

The Top Ten Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy Mutual Funds

A Hard Look at Mutual Funds

Fund Companies Have Outperformed the Funds

What's the Big Deal About a 1% Shortfall?

Bettering Your Odds

The Discount-Broker Alternative

What the Funds Aren't Telling You

Promises, Promises

You Can Do It, Too

The Playing Field Is Level

How Do Financial Advisors Make Money?

Going It Alone

A Word to the Wise

Mutual Fund Performance: Why Funds Don't Beat the Market

The Statistics

How Fees Reduce Returns

How Cash Reduces Returns

Why Funds Can't Keep Up

Why Fund Fees Are So High

Are Changes Coming?

How the Funds Have Really Done

Canadian Equity Mutual Fund Performance

Fund Family Performance

Trimark

Investors Group

Mackenzie Financial/Industrial Funds

Altamira

AGF

C.I.

Dynamic

Green Line

Phillips Hager North

Spectrum United

AIC

Index Funds

Other Canadian Equity Funds

Low MER Funds

Other Types of Funds

Dividend Funds

Small-Cap and Mid-Cap Funds

Precious Metals and Natural Resource Funds

U.S. Equity Funds

International Equity Funds

Bond Funds

Canadian Bond Funds

Bonds and Interest Rates

Balanced Funds

Canadian Balanced Funds

Mortgage Funds

Why Stocks and Bonds are Better Than Mutual Funds

Unfair Taxation

The Herd Mentality

Do Your Investments Match Your Ethics?

Day Trading

What Are You Learning About Business From Mutual Funds?

Information Sources

Annual Reports

Or Show Up in Person

Self-Directed RRSPs and Non-RRSP Discount Broker Accounts

The Can-Con Rules

It's Your Choice

The Falling Cost of Self-Directed Accounts

RESP Accounts

The Discount Brokers

Switching to a Discount Broker

Buying Stocks Through Discount Brokers

Stock Quotes

Placing Orders

Settling Trades

Odd Lots

The Breakdown: What Percent Stocks, What Percent Bonds?

What Is a Stock? What Is a Bond?

Preferred Shares

Stock and Bond Yields

Risk

Finding Your Breakdown

RRSP Strategy: What's In, What's Out

How Investments Are Taxed

What Goes In?

Which Stocks In, Which Stocks Out

Buy and Hold: The Smartest Approach

Don't Time the Market

A Good, Long Run

Dividend Reinvestment Plans

Why Buy-and-Hold Funds Don't Work

A Time to Sell

Reasons to Sell

Stocks That Nosedive

Hurry Up and Wait

Index Stocks Funds: Mutual Funds Without the Fees

How Index Stocks Work

i60s and the Nortel Effect

Other Canadian Index Stocks

U.S. Index Stocks

U.S. Mutual Funds vs. the Index

International Index Stocks

Taxation and Foreign Index Stocks

Other Canadian and International Indexing Options

Index-Linked GICs

Thoughts on Indexing

Diversification: Minimizing Risk in Your Portfolio

What Is Diversification?

Diversification With Individual Stocks

Other Eggs in Other Baskets

International Exposure

Diversified Portfolio Strategies

The All-Index Stocks Approach

The Index Stocks and a Lucky Stock Approach

The Index Stocks and Some Other Stocks Approach

The Index Stocks but Mostly Other Stocks Approach

The All-Stock Approach

The TSE 300: Your Guide to a Diversified Canadian Stock Portfolio

Why Buy Individual Stocks?

Your Picks Are As Good As Any Pro's

But My Broker Recommended...

Getting to Know the TSE 300

The Checkup

Cyclical Stocks

Words to Pick Stocks By

Puttin<$$$>

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