All the reasons mentioned above are why I only invest in mutual funds. One example is the various S&P 500 index funds offered by the larger financial companies.
"The S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States."
If that sucker goes bad, everything will be bad. And it has performed at a 10% return over the past 100 years which includes the Great Depression. I never invest in single company stocks. Been there, got scars from it. I did have CDs in lesser amounts laddered to come due every three months but they all got called on me as rates dropped.
I have also screwed myself by having three funds which all invested in the same companies. Now I always check to see the ten largest companies a fund is invested in.
If there is a way to mess things up I have probably done it over the past fifty years. So to me having various mutual funds investing in different sectors of the economy is the safest way to go and still earn a reasonable return. And after saying that at the present time I have around half of my investments in one very high yielding fund. Makes me nervous sometimes when I think about it but I really don't loose sleep at night over it.
RSKY
