Mutual Fund Monday

How do you find the best mutual fund? There are so many ways to rank them or filter out the undesirables. Do you look at the best performance? If so, which time period do you look at? The best YTD? Best trailing one year, 3 year, 5 year, or 10 year performance? Do you look for the lowest expense ratios? What about load funds versus no-load? Does manager tenure make a difference? How about those funds that are team managed versus those managed by a single person or "superstar" manager? Do Morningstar rankings matter? Would you buy a 3-star fund or do you just stick to the 4-star and 5-star funds? As you can see, there are lots of ways to select a fund. What is best for you, may not be best for someone else. There are other factors too, such as tax efficiency, account minimums, and availability. Some people find what they think is the very best fund and get ready to buy it, only to discover that it's closed to new investors, or the minimum purchase is way more than you can afford. Do your homework and don't be afraid to ask a financial professional what he or she thinks!