Friday, April 16, 2010

Stocks, bonds, or mutual funds?

If you do much browsing of financial websites and investment magazines, you'll quickly notice a trend. There are scores of articles touting the "best stocks to buy now" or "must have mutual funds". Some even discuss the virtues of investing in bonds or some other fixed income investment. The trouble with these articles is that the author does not know anything about you or your situation. What might be good advice for one person, may be completely wrong for you. These authors don't know how much money you have already invested in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. They don't know if you are a conservative investor or an aggressive one. They don't know if you are looking for income or are mainly interesting in accumulating assets. They don't know how long you have been investing or what your income and net worth is. They don't know your goals and objectives for your investments. These are all important questions that need to be answered before recommending which stocks, bonds, or mutual funds are the best for you. Maybe it's none of the above! So while these articles can be insightful and entertaining, they just cannot take the place of a face to face meeting between yourself and a competent financial advisor. Do yourself a favor, go find one!

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