Product Description

A timely update of a core title in our bestselling ...For Dummies personal finance list.

Mutual Funds For Canadians For Dummies, 2nd Edition, demystifies mutual funds, and shows you how to understand mutual funds, identify the many available funds, build a strong portfolio, include mutual funds in your RRSP, use the Internet to make investments, and of course, how to maximize returns on your mutual fund investments.

New to the second edition:
An overview of the investment environment circa 2002, examining movements and trends that affected it, including the tech crash, the telecom meltdown, the rise of income trusts, the defections of key fund managers, Enron and other accounting scandals.Which fund companies have been bought, sold, or driven under.

All information regarding market statistics, fund categories, and individual funds will be updated for 2002, as will the Websites and other resources to to track your funds' performance.

Plus:

• The pros, cons, and track record of income trusts and hedge funds.
• Updates on MERs (Management Expense Ratios) and discount brokers.
• New standards on fund governance.
• Strong performance of small-cap stocks.
• Gold funds: Why everyone should own one.
• Underperformance of index and labour funds.
• New funds that minimize your tax hit.
• Capital class funds.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #206854 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.ca
Picking mutual funds isn't rocket science, but it is time consuming. In Mutual Funds for Canadians for Dummies, investment writer Andrew Bell takes the mystique out of it with his tongue-in-cheek approach and jargon-free English. "This book contains no magic, just some plain logic and simple facts that you can find out for yourself by fooling around with mutual funds for a few years," he says. "But lots of people don't have the time or inclination to do that." The first thing you need to know is what the different types of mutual funds are. Bell defines them as equity funds, money market funds, bond funds, balanced funds, index funds, segregated funds, clone funds, dividend funds, and labour-sponsored funds. He recommends investing in each, depending on how much risk you are prepared to take, and he suggests sample fund portfolios for all tastes. Once you understand what you want, you need to know whom to buy your funds from--a bank, a broker, a discount broker, a financial adviser, or directly from the fund company. It all depends how much handholding you need. (After reading this book, you probably won't need a lot.) But everyone involved in the fund, from the sellers to the wholesalers to the managers, wants a percentage or a commission. The management expense ratio (MER) rather than the performance is usually the factor that is going to determine how much return you get on a fund. Bell advises finding out what the MER is and keeping those costs and fees down.

There are close to 3,000 different mutual funds for sale in Canada. They all pretty much fit into the 10 categories described in this book, plus specialty sector funds and regional funds. A whole cottage industry of mutual fund guidebooks has developed, analyzing the nuances of each one of these. But because these guides concentrate on performance, they need to be updated each year. Mutual Funds For Canadians For Dummies gives you an overview of how to invest in mutual funds yourself without having to wait for the ever-changing annual performance numbers. --Edward Trapunski

From the Back Cover
There's still a place for mutual funds in your portfolio! Now updated with new fund categories and expanded resources, let this jargon-free, friendly guide help you chart your course through today's volatile investment climate. Just follow the signposts and you'll do fine.

About the Author
Andrew Bell is an investment reporter with Report on Business Television. During his 12 years at The Globe and Mail, Andrew compiled Saturday's feature, "Stars & Dogs," a humourous roundup of hot and damp stocks.