Start Here

Target-Date Funds: Another Dangerous Investment Epiphany

You may have heard of one of the newer (marketing) "innovations" developed by the mutual fund industry called target-date funds. They were launched a few years ago as a way to ensure investors they had developed a better way to manage investment risk after many saw their retirement accounts vaporize during the dotcom collapse.
The idea behind target-date funds is simple and seemingly useful. You select funds based on your target retirement year. Based on the year selected, these funds gradually invest in more conservative financial instruments as your retirement date approaches.
For instance, if you plan to retire in 2025, the current holdings of a typical fund might hold say 80% equities and 20% bonds. By 2020, the allocation might have gradually shifted to 40% equities and 60% bonds.
The rational for the reallocation to bonds is that equities are more volatile, so as your investment horizon (retirement date) draws near, you will want to have a less volatile portfolio so as to have a more predictable income stream.

This article continues.

To continue viewing this entry please sign in to your Client or Member account.

Print article

Restrictions Against Reproduction: No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the Publisher.

These articles and commentaries cannot be reposted or used in any publications for which there is any revenue generated directly or indirectly. These articles cannot be used to enhance the viewer appeal of any website, including any ad revenue on the website, other than those sites for which specific written permission has been granted. Any such violations are unlawful and violators will be prosecuted in accordance with these laws.

Article 19 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

This publication (written, audio and video) represents the commentary and/or criticisms from Mike Stathis or other individuals affiliated with Mike Stathis or AVA Investment Analytics (referred to hereafter as the “author”). Therefore, the commentary and/or criticisms only serve as an opinion and therefore should not be taken to be factual representations, regardless of what might be stated in these commentaries/criticisms. There is always a possibility that the author has made one or more unintentional errors, misspoke, misinterpreted information, and/or excluded information which might have altered the commentary and/or criticisms. Hence, you are advised to conduct your own independent investigations so that you can form your own conclusions. We encourage the public to contact us if we have made any errors in statements or assumptions. We also encourage the public to contact us if we have left out relevant information which might alter our conclusions. We cannot promise a response, but we will consider all valid information.


Mutual Fund Disasters (Part 3)

Part 1 (Overview) Part 2  

Mutual Fund Disasters (Part 2)

Previously, we summarized some important pieces published on mutual funds a few years ago. See here. Here, we continue with an in-depth look at how some kid hoodwinked Main Street into sending him...

Mutual Fund Disasters: An Overview

Check below for Part 2. ...

Mutual Fund Disasters: David Tice and His Prudent Bear Fund

Want to save tens of thousands of dollars? In this article, I tie in numerous aspects of erroneous and deceptive marketing by the mutual fund industry, executed primarily through the business arrang...

Mutual Fund Disasters: Harry Dent the Fund Manager

Seizing upon his media “celebrity,” (which essentially means you have sheep lining up for your perceived expertise, created solely by being seen on television) Dent formed an ETF in 2009 c...

A Look at Harry Dent's Track Record

Update on Dent (April 25, 2015): Check out this new video on Dent, showing his terrible track record Broken Clock Moron Of The Month: Harry Dent   Update on Dent May 3, 2015: M...

More Useless Trash From the Financial Media (Part 2)

Continuing from Part 1 Contrary to the claim that Federated’s Prudent Bear Fund holds more short than long stock positions, if you check the current top holdings, you won't see a single short p...

More Useless Trash from the Financial Media (Part 1)

As I sat at home on this early Saturday morning doing some research, I ran across an article I wanted to bring to your attention.  First, I want you to notice the title. ...

Mutual Fund Disasters: The Rise and Fall of Bill Miller

From 1991 through 2005, Legg Mason’s Bill Miller was the only mutual fund manager to have beaten the S&P 500 Index each year for that 15-year period. That should have been a warning sig...

Why Mutual Funds are the WORST Investments During Bear Markets (Part 2)

As I continue from Part 1, let me explain further why mutual funds can get killed during bear markets. A down market is the best way to lower the cost basis of the fund’s securities positio...

Why Mutual Funds are the WORST Investment During Bear Markets (Part 1)

This article was modified from a portion of the The Wall Street Investment Bible. That’s right. This material is contained with the appendix of the book; not the body. Mike saved even more...

0:00
0:00