How do Mutual Funds work?
Because someone else manages them, you don’t have to worry about diversifying individual investments yourself or doing your own record keeping. That makes it easier to just buy them and forget about them. That’s not always the best strategy, however — your money is in someone else’s hands, after all.
A mutual fund is a company that pools investors’ money to make multiple types of investments, known as the portfolio. Stocks, bonds, and money market funds are all examples of the types of investments that may make up a mutual fund. The mutual fund is managed by a professional investment manager who buys and sells securities for the most effective growth of the fund. As a mutual fund investor, you become a “shareholder” of the mutual fund company. When there are profits you will earn dividends. When there are losses, your shares will decrease in value. Mutual funds are, by definition, diversified, meaning they are made up a lot of different investments. That tends to lower your risk (avoiding the old “all of your eggs in one basket” problem). Because someone else manages them, you don’t have to worry about diversifying individual investments y
