Customer Reviews

Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds: Five-Star Strategies for Success

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book provided a good broad-based overview of mutual funds and endorses modern portfolio theory. The idea being that a properly allocated portfolio of mutual funds with a focus towards long-term investing will work the best for most investors building their retirement savings. Properly balanced over the years, this style will work better than that of active investors trying to chase hot funds and time the market since very few active managers succeed over the long haul.

If you were to look at a "Top 10" performing mutual fund from 10 or 5 years ago, chances are it isn't a Top 10 fund anymore so you shouldn't buy into the hype of today's current "hot fund". If it were such a solid fund, shouldn't it be a solid fund 10 years later? But this book and similar ones feel that while an active investor and a hot fund may have one good year, they probably have bad years as well, and they probably can't keep up their above-average performance over 30 years.

I read this book along with "All About Asset Allocation" by Richard Ferri and "The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need: The Way Smart Money Invests Today" by Larry Swedroe all of which cover similar ground (an overview of mutual funds, an overview of modern portfolio theory). My favorite is the Swedroe book because of it's straightforward reading style, and it goes a little more in-depth than the Morningstar book.

The Morningstar book only gets 3 stars because unfortunately Morningstar has a product to sell: namely, Morningstar itself. Morningstar makes money buy getting you to use their services (such as their web site) and rely on their ranking system and advice all of which comes through in this book. Morningstar's 5-Star ranking system can create some of the problems Hot Top 10 Funds lists create: they tempt everyone into thinking if it's a 5-star fund it HAS to be good so why not buy the hot 5-star fund that posted a 30% return last year? Why would anyone buy a 5-star fund with a 12% return? But not all of Morningstar's 5-star funds stay 5-star funds so you have to look past the hype when deciding for yourself if a fund is good for you for the next 5, 10, 20 years. The book was okay but be mindful of the Morningstar product placement. The Swedroe book gets my recommendation.

This book is clear, concise, and effective. I've read the first four chapters so far, and it has explained everything I've wanted to know about choosing mutual funds. I was absolutely ecstatic when I saw that the chapter on mutual fund management has an overview of the pros and cons of a number of the well-known fund companies.

One of the reviewers was complaining that this book relies too heavily on Morningstar research. Well, first of all, Morningstar is one of the premier analysis firms in the industry, and as such they have a wealth of great information. Secondly, I have yet to see a place in the book where they ask you to pay for anything. A good portion of the Morningstar website is free, and the book mentions a Morningstar mutual fund book you can get from public libraries. The reviewer also complains about the Morningstar 5-star rating system. The book explains that the star ratings can be used as a screening tool, and stresses the many other factors that should be considered when evaluating a fund. When used in conjunction with other objective criteria, the star rating is a powerful tool to evaluate past returns and volatility.

With all of this in mind, if you are absolutely new to investing, you should become familiar with certain basic investing terms and concepts before reading this book. I highly recommend either The Wall Street Journal's Complete Guide to Personal Finance or The WSJ's Complete Money and Investing Guidebook. For most people, I would say the Guide to Personal Finance would be a good primer.

The book reads somewhere between a text book and a general description of mutual funds and bonds. I found it to be very informative, well organized and believe I have a much better understanding of how mutual funds work. Also, Crhistine is pretty cute.

I am new to stocks and mutual funds. I just read some basic online tutorials. I have no problems in understanding the concepts in the book. Very well Written. I should have bought this book years back.

If you are new to mutual fund investing then this book is an excellent place to start. For anyone who has looked at a Morningstar mutual fund report this book will help show you key points to focus on. One thing this book is missing though is a thorough explanation of everything provided on a Morningstar report such as benchmarking and alpha etc. The book does give you an excellent overview of some of the biggest mutual fund companies out there. Unfortunately, a lot of the individual mutual funds that are recommended are closed to new investors. Bottom line, if you are a financial adviser or individual investor dealing with mutual funds this book is a fantastic place to start your researching.

I bought this book because I had read the multi-volume series on investing Benz also wrote for Morningstar, and I also follow her articles on their website. If you are just starting out as an investor, or you are looking for a refresher (or ONE book to give someone who is not an educated investor) this book is an ideal choice. Well done. She takes the mystery [and maybe some of the fear] out of investing in Mutual Funds.

Christine Benz is extremely knowledgeable and articulate, explainly the ins and outs of mutual funds in easily understood language. This is your first and last stop if you wish to become informed about this popular way of investing your money. The only downside is that it was published in 2005. A more up-to-date edition would have more--or perhaps changing--information on featured funds.

Concrete introductory book to mutual fund tradings, some illustrative examples to trigger further researches. Chapter on comments on the strength and weakness of various fund companies are especially useful. Two weakness of this book: the first one is the fact that it is published in 2005, which is in the middle of a bull market and thus may not therefore be up to date. More up to date information should therefore be sought online in the Morningstar website as well as other websites. The second weakness is the relative lack of comments of the international perspectives, especially on emerging markets like China and Latin America.

A good good book for those wishing basic information to start investing in Mutual Funds.

My dad read this book & found it one of the best overviews of Mutual Funds. He said it had taken him over 30 years to reach many of the conclusions in the book - and some he learned the hard way. He wished this book had been around when he started investing 30+ years ago.