Articles
Search:

Home | Finance | Investing



Retirement Planning: A Solid Solution







They may not be glamorous or bring extreme returns. But then, they aren't meant to. Recently, money market mutual funds have found their way into a broad variety of investor's portfolios as their returns have increased and their attractive reliability has continued.

Between June 2004 and September 2005, money market yields increased from over a half a percent, to 2.89 percent, according to an Associated Press story in early-September 2005.1 A rather large jump to say the least.

Serving as a temporary investment vehicle for those not ready to invest, money market funds are generally a short-term savings tool that, in comparison to many investments, is considered safer and more reliable.

Using the advantages of a mutual fund, a money market version typically invests in a variety of things including CDs, U.S. Treasury securities and debt-obligations. By investing in a money market mutual fund, you're also benefiting from a possibility of higher returns than those available from individual investment in a CD or money market account.

An investment in a money market mutual fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other government agency. Although money market funds seek to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, it is possible to lose money by investing in these funds.

Tax savings are another potential plus. You may be able to take advantage of a tax-free money market mutual fund. These are usually funds that purchase short-term debt from tax-free organizations, like state or local government. While their yield is usually lower, you have the potential of saving the difference in taxes.

Many money market mutual funds also offer an advantage if you're invested in several other types of mutual funds within the same fund company. A money market mutual fund can act as temporary storage if you sell off assets in a mutual fund and wish to keep them in the fund company before investing in another fund. In comparison to other options, this is a relatively easy way to transfer money between funds and still potentially benefit while you choose your next mutual fund investment.

Money market mutual funds can serve a variety of investors but can be most attractive to smaller investors. Many have easier withdrawal features including check writing or wire transfer if you choose to close or move money from an account. Always consult with a financial professional before deciding what investment moves to make. They may be able to guide you to a better option.

Investing in a money market mutual fund is meant for an investor with a specific set of circumstances and objectives. They certainly aren't glamorous, and they won't help you retire in style any time soon. But they may be able to offer you tax savings, which is always attractive.

1 Meg Richards, "Money-Market Mutual Funds Surge," Associated Press, September 4, 2005.


Information and Articles: http://www.mastersmba.com

Providing Information on various topics, please browse our other Articles for more informative resources, we house information on every topic imaginable so regardless of your needs you can be assured to find the answer here. If you wish to reprint this on your own website, simply click the "Web Version" in the right menu, and you are presented with a pre-formatted document to use.

A lot of the information is written by the Master Article team, and published exclusively on the MastersMBA.com website, and we do our best to research all information to ensure it's as accurate as possible. However at times we also publish documents given to us by other sources, we do examine these documents to ensure they are as accurate and correct as possible however at times they discuss highly specialized fields making it hard to authenticate the validity of every fact in the document. These are written by specialists in their respective fields, and we do trust their integrity and judgment however it's always a good idea when doing any research to consult a number of sources and form your own conclusion based on a number of view points. Also if you are looking for Google Chrome Extensions you can check out that link.

RSS

You can click the XML Icon Above to Read Investing Articles Via RSS!

Design by SEO Info: SEO Forum

Providing Articles on everything from Credit