In the sea of countless investment companies, how do you choose the ones that are best for you and your business? This is a list of the top investment companies you should be thinking about when you want to jump into the stock market and allow somebody else to manage your investments for you!
There are many criteria a person should look at when deciding which investment firm will be the best for their needs. One of the strongest aspects of a reliable investment company is their management team! I know I personally sleep better at night knowing that my money is in the hands of people who know what they are doing. Other things to look for when picking a company to invest your money with is looking at how they have done in the past and how much expenses they are going to charge you.
The Vanguard Group, Inc.
Vanguard is probably one of the best investment firms you can trust your money with. As of June 2010, they manage approximately $1.4 trillion in mutual funds! That is one huge number to get your head around. The Vanguard Group, Inc. has an all star management team with only the best and brightest managers to handle your money and investments.
Information about Vanguard Funds, Investments, and Mutual Funds looks extremely good as listed by Morning Star, a leading website that features information on funds and investments.
Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC offers a wide variety of options to their investors. Although they were at first known for their mutual funds only, Fidelity Investments has expanded their role to fit the needs of their customers. Now they have around 300 Fidelity mutual funds, provide retirement services, life insurance and a host of other options.
In my personal opinion, Fidelity is the best when it comes to managing your retirement.
American Funds
I have included American Funds to this list because together, these three investment companies outshine everyone else. Looking at the snapshot of American Funds Mutual Funds on Morning Star, you can see what percentage of their assets are allocated to domestic and international investments. It seems they have approximately 30 percent of their assets in international stocks and 40 percent in domestic stock. The rest falls into municipal and taxable bonds.
What does all this tell us? It signals that American Funds is a company of growth! Typically when a person is younger, they should be heavily invested into stocks and not so much in bonds. This is what American Funds’ portfolio tells us. They are heavy into stocks.
American Funds has performed extremely well according to the fund family snapshot on Morning Star. You can see that their returns have been good; way above average!
Some basics of investing
People usually tend to give themselves too much credit when it comes to investing. The best strategy is usually to buy and hold in the long term. This reason makes investing in mutual funds lucrative because stocks in the long term are more resistant to fluctuations in the market.
There was a time at the turn of the century when a person could buy stocks in the morning and sell them at a higher price later on during the day. This is where the term day traders comes from. After the market crashed, most of day traders disappeared and people started investing once again for the long term. If there is anything you take from this article, it should be that you must be in the market for the long term if you want to see your investments grow.
A few days ago I wrote an article explaining why long term investments are still important. I am going to repeat it again that the best strategy for investing is to be in it for the long haul. There are too many factors that could swing the market one way or another from month to month, or even a few years. Take the recent recession for example. Markets are stuck and it might take more than a year or two in order to get back to where we were before the slowdown. The people who got into the market for the long run while it was at its lowest just a year or two ago are smart.
Just remember that no matter which investment company you choose to go with, you should be thinking about buying and holding for a long time.