i think the best known fund that tracks that is the Vangard index 500 fund. i think it is the s&p 500 marketbasket, less about a half % annually for expenses. since '76, shows 11.6% annual return. 10 year, however, shows only 3.99% return. i do not recall exact numbers, but only a modest percentage (10%) of mutual funds beat the dow or the s&p500.
probably better than passbook, and more stable than common stock funds are AAA rated preferred stocks. one can purchase one's own stocks for $10 for a purchase of 10k, 100k, or 1m. the problem with all individual purchases is: 1. the bid-asked system of purchase. small investors get the short end of the stick 2. information chain. the big guys know more, and get there firstist with the mostest. 3. the small guy advantage, small positions are taken. the big guy has to buy/sell 10+m for a position. this affects the market. or buy berkshire hathaway, and live on buffett smarts At 09:23 AM 3/11/2008, you wrote: >>For tracking investments, a spreadsheet and a web query would be as simple >>and straight forward a tool for your needs that there is. > >I like spreadsheets. Google Spreadsheets has a function for retrieving >information from the cloud. I wonder how well that would work on getting >financial statistics? That would certainly be a great way to leverage the >Web. > >>Or you can take the lazy man's approach and invest a set amount at regular >>intervals in a stock index fund. > >I think that the stock index fund is no longer the no-brainer it used to >be. My intuition is that stocks are returning no better than a passbook >savings account. In recent years the value of stock as an investment has >changed as corporate managers drain away the profits for themselves. >Hence my motivation for running some scenarios. > > >************************************************************************* >** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** >** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** >************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
