Mutual Fund Talk

Sure Ways To Improve Mutual Fund Investment Returns

Kiplinger's Personal Finance is offering seven time-tested rules to get better results from your mutual fund investments.

1. Dump the slackers -- Treat a bad fund the way you would a bad relationship: Get out -- and the sooner, the better.

2. Learn to love consistency -- The mirror image of the previous rule: Look for funds that consistently produce above-average results. When you invest in funds that regularly show up in the top half of their peer group, you'll almost certainly have identified funds with superior long-term results.

3. Slim down your portfolio -- Asset bloat isn't a digestive problem. It's what happens when a fund manager tries to wolf down too much of your money. Asset bloat is good for a fund's sponsor because it means more fees. But investors often suffer because a fund that grows too large can lose the edge that helped build its reputation.

4. Take advantage of youth -- New funds tend to perform better than old ones. That's because they're small, giving their managers flexibility to load up on their favorite stocks without dramatically affecting the stocks' prices.

5. Respect risk -- Risk isn't a four-letter word. There's nothing wrong with taking chances when you invest. In fact, one of the axioms of investing is that the greater the reward, the bigger the risk you have to take.

6. Buy funds that put you first -- You can tell a lot about the culture of a fund company without ever visiting it. That's important because you want the management company working in the best interests of fund shareholders, not fund honchos.

7. Stay ahead of the trend -- Sometimes it's best to take a deep breath and invest in funds with uninspiring, if not lousy, records.