Value Fund

**hfchen73** Fri Jul 29, 2005 11:24 am

Value Fund
Hello Blast,

First thanks a lot for the wonderful performance of BIRTP model.
I am not sure if this question should be in the Blog, it's about Value Mutual fund.

I read your article and get the impression that most fund underperforms market and there are scandels as well. However I still need to put money in mutual fund in my 401k account. So I put most of them in value fund, like mid-cap value, and some of them in real estate fund (which I assume is also value based).

My question is, are these value fund relatively safe in the long run? And are they using the same value investing idea you mentioned in your article? Because you mentioned scandels about mutual fund, I am not sure mutual fund is the right way to go, but in 401k, they only provide mutual fund. Like HWMIX, GSMCX, REAIX etc...

Thanks,
hfchen

**blast_investor** Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:24 pm

Hi hfchen:

Thank you for praising BIRTP service. Because mutual fund topic is outside BIRTP service, I move your question from Blog to here.

I am not expert in mutual fund selection area. This topics is typically expertise of financial advisors. Because of recent mutual fund scandals, I believe it is wise to spend personal time on detailed homework and scrutiny before you decide to go with any mutual fund.

Personally. I strongly believe in value investing method. Therefore, I believe that well-performing solid value mutual funds make sense for many investors, especially for those that do not want to manage the money themself.

To get good results, you will need to do homework and ask tough questions. For example, How well the fund performs? What is the history of the fund manager(s)? Whether the value mutual fund truly sticks with value investing investment philosophy?

Hope this helps.

Regards,

**RT Wolf** Thu May 04, 2006 9:48 am

www.morningstar.com and the .ca version provide excellent fund screeners you can use to figure out what funds have done well consistantly. Additionally, www.fool.com offers a mutual fund newsletter which is probably good, you can try it for 30 days.

Good luck!