by Art West

Created on: March 15, 2011

Mutual Funds are a great way to build wealth.

I know some of you may be saying "I don't have enough money to invest in Mutual Funds."  Actually 401k plans are simply a combination of Mutual Funds, so if you are in your 401k plan at work, then you are investing in Mutual Funds.  If your company offers a 401k plan, I strongly encourage you to invest in it.

Whether you are investing in a single independent Mutual Fund or investing in your 401k plan, the same basic principals should apply as you make your selection.  There are 4 key areas to look at, in my opinion.  The Fund Manager, Fund age, performance and recent performance. You can find all of this information on line, most of it on Yahoo Finance. Simply go to Yahoo Finance and type in the ticker symbol in the box in the upper left hand corner where it say "get quotes".  You can easily get the ticker symbol by typing the name of the Mutual Fund in the search box of your computer.  A series of letters will appear.  For example Franklin Custodian Growth Fund is FKGRX.  I will be using this fund as an example.

1) FUND MANAGER.  The Fund Manager should be someone with experience.  As you look down the left hand column, you will see "FUND" and under that will be "Profile".  Click on "Profile" and scroll down the page.  You will see a brief history of the current manger.  In this case, the manager is currently Vivian J. Palmieri, who has been lead manager since March 1965.  Even though Vivian must be pretty old, the fact that she has been lead manager since 1965 shows stability and that's a good thing.  You should make sure that the lead manager (in my opinion) has at least 10 years experience.

2) FUND AGE.  You are looking for a Fund that has been around for at least 10 years and the longer it has been around, the better.  On the same page where you found the Fund Manager, you will see at the top of the page a box that says "Fund Overview".  In that box it will tell you when the Fund began.  In this case, the Fund began on March 30, 1948.  That means it as been around a while and has survived through difficult times.  I survived the Korean War, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the fuel crisis of the 1970's, the resignation of President Nixon, recessions and the attack on The World Trade Center.

3) FUND PERFORMANCE.   As you look under "FUND" and then "Performance", you will

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