Parchayi.com - Personal Finance Simplified

It seems I only cover IFN here, so here goes coverage for my second largest investment after IFN - Panera Bread (PNRA). Today Panera reported same store sales below the estimates from the two (yes only two) that cover the stock. This sent the stock tanking down 2% (was down as much as 4%) to January levels.

I have been using PNRA to buy low sell high as the stock vacillates from the 60s to the 70s, so I’m just hanging on to it waiting for it to reach 75 again to sell. However I do intend to buy back the stock and I will keep holding PNRA as a long term investment.

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The Indian stock market has taken more beatings over the last two days, sending IFN down along with it. The Indian index closed below 10000 again today and all gains since Jan 27 have been erased in just over a week.

Despite today’s 200 point drop, IFN has not similarly dropped possibly due to strangth in US markets and the fact that it is already at early January levels. Morningstar still shows a premium of over 30% for IFN! Is it time to get in? I’d wait for several consecutive days upwards before buying. However I do feel that the current levels for the Indian indices are reasonable.

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This is tricky question, and even trickier to answer. There are so many different answers to this question that the best answer is ‘depends on your situation’. I will try to cover as much ground as possible with focus on the long term investor who is not into active trading. If you want free advice to start with on your individual situation, I would suggest posting a message to one or both of the following newsgroups:
misc.invest.mutual funds (mimf)
misc.invest.financial-plan (mifp)

mifp is moderated and you generally get more decent reponses. mimf is not moderated, responses are faster but expect to hear arguments from the regulars that are way off-topic and sometimes nasty comments.

Back to an overview of how to pick funds. The first step is knowing where to find information. The most common place would be Morningstar.

Next is knowing what not to invest in:

• Avoid any kind of load funds.
• Avoid Funds with High Expense Ratios

Now you are set to pick your funds. In this post I will discuss picking funds at a particular fund company. If you have not selected a Fund Company yet, here are a few: Vanguard, Fidelity, T Rowe Price. You can also invest in Funds from a broker, often without any transaction fees. This may be a better option if the fund(s) you want are available.

All of the fund companies I mentioned have extremely informative websites, that will provide you with model portfolios based on your investment timeline and risk tolerance. I suggest you go to each website and obtain their recommended portfolios. See which you feel the most comfortable with and go that way.

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