Children of Soldiers Fund

The money we earn is partly spent and the rest saved for meeting future expenses. Instead of keeping the savings idle we may like to use savings in order to get return on it in the future. This is called Investment. Investment means putting our money to work to earn more money. We needs to invest to earn return on our idle resources, to generate a specified sum of money for a specific goal in life and to make a provision for an uncertain future. One of the important reasons why one needs to invest wisely is to meet the cost of Inflation. Inflation is the rate at which the cost of living increases. The cost of living is simply what it costs to buy the goods and services you need to live. Inflation causes money to lose value because it will not buy the same amount of a good or a service in the future as it does now or did in the past. For example, if there was a 6% inflation rate for the next 20 years, a Rs. 100 purchase today would cost Rs. 321 in 20 years

o The IMF predicts the US economy to slow down.o The outlook for Western Europe and Japan isn’t too great either.o Headline inflation has increased in both advanced as well as emerging economies.o Oil price has doubled over the last six months.o There is a possibility of deeper economic downturn.o The stock markets of most of the countries have tumbled during recent times.These sentences are not something new for regular readers of newspapers, especially financial newspapers. Everybody would have been affected as a result of the consequences of these statements. During tough times such as these, where would you put your money? Stock market – No that would be suicidal! Banks – rate of return would be too low. Then where?One possible place is mutual funds. They are a lot safer than shares and earn better returns than banks. But one must be careful while choosing a mutual fund during recession times. It is always a better bet to invest in bonds during recession. It ensures regular interest payments and possible capital appreciation when bond price increases. Bond mutual funds enable you to get just that.As the name suggests, these funds

As our economic outlook continues to be poor and as the stock market is in turmoil, stock investing has become increasingly difficult. Maintaining a solid investment portfolio can be hard work. One alternative to the difficult work of stock selection is to invest in mutual funds. With thousands of mutual funds to choose from, how can you tell which ones are the best?That’s why I have compiled a list of the 7 Best Mutual Funds for 2009. After researching the performance, stability, and income of hundreds of top-rated funds, I found the best mutual funds to invest in for 2009 and beyond.Income-DividendsOne part of my selection process was to find mutual funds with cash flow, either through dividends or bond interest payments (in the form of dividends for mutual funds). This factor is becoming ever more important during a time when stocks continue to decline. Through dividends you can know that you will have an income of the yield percentage.Future TrendsAnother selection criteria was to find mutual funds that are going to perform well for years to come. As you will see, I have included a mutual fund that invests in

‘Loaded mutual funds’ can be described as those that require the investor to pay fees for buying a mutual fund. These charges are known as sales load and are primarily commissions paid to the person who sells the fund to the investor. Loaded mutual funds are preferred mainly by sales brokers and insurance salesmen because they earn revenues for them.There are three different types of sales loads on these funds. They are as follows:1. Front-end loads: Also known as entry fees, these charges must be paid up-front when the investor buys the fund.2. Back-end load: Also known as exit fees, these charges have to be paid by the investor when he walks away from the fund taking his investment along with the returns.3. Constant load: These charges have to be paid throughout the entire term of the fund.In all these three options, front-end loads are better for investors. A hidden fact in a loaded fund is that the charges or the sales load is deducted from the actual investment amount. As a result, the net investment value at the start of the fund is lower. For example, when an investor wants