Wise men, would you reccommend investing in a mutual fund. E.g making 50k deposits a month to Old Mutual?

Why?

Why Not?

@Inc: mutual fund is a US term for collective investments similar to the open ended funds available in the UK:Unit trusts and OEICs...the fund pools cash to invest in securities:ADVANTAGES include: (1)An individual can invest relatively small amounts,the pooling of investments enables the fund to purchase securities at a lower cost when compared to an individual (2)time involved in directly managing ones portfolio is saved (3)a wide diversification btwn diff shares and sectors can be achieved (4)risk is reduced (5)specilisation is possible (6)exposure to foreign stocks which can be costly and inconvinient for an individual who holds the shares directly. DISADVANTAGES: 1)fund managers choose the basket of investments not the individual,the basket myt not suit all investors (2) although the investor does not have to pick individual securities,he still has to choose the fund manager and diff managers performance can vary widely (3)large collective funds find it more difficult to invest in shares of companies with a relatively small cap,becoz of the small quantities of stock available (4)a fund can be a victim of its own success as the fund size becomes greater it can make it more difficult to follow a successful strategy...If you have prerequisite knowledge on how the financial markets work you can make more money on your own,rem the funds also have to take their cut reducing wht u get in the long run...

I invest in the neighbouring Ghana Money Market Fund (MFUND) strictly for levearage purposes as
I CANNOT LOOSE in monetary terms in money market
instruments.

http://www.databankgroup...mp;id=105&Itemid=93


Find below is their latest annual reports an historical returns.

Note:- This is just an illustration NOT an invitation to invest there.

http://www.databankgroup...nagement/Mfund-2011.pdf


I started to invest in MFUND in 2006 and the returns has been as follows :-

2006 14.7%
2007 11.9
2008 18%
2009 28.6 %
2010: 17.23 %
2011 12.18 %


1000 Ghana Cedis invested in 2006 translates to 2920 Ghana Cedis
as at Dec 2011.

In stocks are you not leaving your hard earned money to the company you invest in ?
What happens if they declare a loss or less than projected result ?

I personally think that having a small chunk of your money in mutual funds doesn't harm. I would advise more so in cases where stock picking among novices like me becomes a challenge during the learning process.