Mutual Funds For Dummies, 6th edition [Paperback]

Eric Tyson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 2010

Position your portfolio for growth with one of America's bestselling mutual fund books

Indicators are pointing to a rebound in mutual funds, and investors are returning! Newly revised and updated, Mutual Funds For Dummies, 6^th Edition, provides you with expert insight on how to find the best-managed funds that match your financial goals. With straightforward advice and a plethora of specific up-to-date fund recommendations, personal finance expert Eric Tyson helps you avoid fund-investing pitfalls and maximize your chances of success.

• This revised edition features expanded coverage of ETFs, fund alternatives, and research methods
• Tyson provides his time-tested investing advice, as well as updates to his fund recommendations and coverage of tax law changes
• Sample fund portfolios and updated forms show you exactly how to accomplish your financial goals

Pick the best funds, assemble and maintain your portfolio, evaluate your funds' performance, and track and invest in funds online with Mutual Funds For Dummies, 6^th Edition!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Pick the best funds, assemble and maintain your portfolio, and evaluate your funds' performance

Looking for a trusted resource to help you add mutual funds to your investment strategy? With straightforward advice and a plethora of specific, up-to-date fund recommendations, personal finance expert Eric Tyson helps you avoid fund-investing pitfalls and maximize your chances of success.

• Meet mutual funds — get an introduction to mutual funds and follow along financial housecleaning tips to get your personal finances in order

• Know your options — discover the many fund-investing options out there and gain the know-how to decide which is right for you

• Pick a winner — find out which funds and fund companies are worth investing in and get helpful advice on the best venues and avenues for buying funds

• Fine-tune your portfolio — explore the basic strategies of portfolio construction and start building your portfolio to include mutual funds that match your specific financial goals

• Stay ahead of the pack — maintain your portfolio, evaluate your funds' performance, and keep current with the best mutual fund information sources

Open the book and find:

• Important investing concepts

• Why you should opt for mutual funds

• Where to find the best funds

• Open-end vs. closed-end funds

• Sample portfolios

• How to avoid fund-investing pitfalls

• When to enlist the services of an advisor

• Which financial "gurus" to avoid

• Common fund problems and how to fix them

Learn to:

• Plan and implement a successful investment strategy that includes mutual funds

• Find the best-managed funds that match your financial goals

• Avoid fund-investing pitfalls

• Select among mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and other investing options

About the Author

Eric Tyson is a nationally recognized personal finance counselor, writer, and lecturer. He is the bestselling author of For Dummies books on personal finance and investing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 6 edition (July 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470623217
• ISBN-13: 978-0470623213
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Tyson is a best-selling personal finance book author and has penned five national best sellers. He is also the only author to have four of his books simultaneously on Business Week's business book bestseller list.

His Personal Finance for Dummies, a Wall Street Journal best-seller, won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Business Book of the Year. Eric's syndicated newspaper column is read by millions of readers weekly. He is a former columnist and award-winning journalist for the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. His website, www.erictyson.com, rocketed into the top one percent of financial websites within its first year of operation.

Eric's work has been featured and quoted in hundreds of local and national publications and media outlets including Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Money, Worth, Parenting, USA Today and on the NBC Today Show, ABC, Fox News, CNBC, PBS Nightly Business Report, CNN, and on CBS national radio, NPR's Marketplace Money and Bloomberg Business Radio. He's also been a featured speaker at a White House conference on retirement planning.

Tired of working as a management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms which more interested in maximizing short-term profits than in providing sound financial products and services, Eric founded in 1990 the nation's first financial counseling firm which works exclusively on an hourly basis. He started his new company with a simple mission: to provide objective, cost-effective personal financial advice, especially to non-wealthy Americans. Through family and friends, Eric had seen many otherwise intelligent people make horrendous mistakes in managing their money, in part, because the failure of our schools and colleges to teach personal finance.

In addition to his counseling work, Eric also hoped to make an impact in the writing and media fields. Much of the personal finance writing and reporting he saw and heard was biased, jargon-laden and, in some cases, filled with bad advice. For example, rather than telling people the hard truth - that one must live within one's means as a prerequisite to building wealth - many publications offer up hyped and unrealistic "get rich without making sacrifices or taking risk" type approaches.

In addition to his writing and counseling, Eric also taught the nation's most highly attended personal financial management course at the University of California. He has spoken at many corporations and non-profits. His educational background includes having earned his bachelor's degree in economics at Yale and an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Eric is the only best-selling personal finance author who has an extensive background as an hourly-based financial planner and who does not accept speaking fees, endorsement deals or fees of any type from companies in the financial services industry or product or service providers recommended in his articles, books and his publications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

155 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a book you cannot be disappointed with, May 31, 2000

By 

+++ (OR, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mutual Funds for Dummies (Paperback)

"Mutual funds for dummies" is the third book from the "Dummies" series I got my hands on. Reading the first two was a waste of time, and frankly speaking I did not expect much from this one either. However, this book was a pleasant surprise, which changed my opinion on the "Dummies" books. The first half of the book is a comprehensive study of the basics of mutual funds and of the criteria for evaluating their performance and selecting the best funds. It is so well written that I asked myself many times while reading what this book had to do with the "Dummies" series. I got the answer to this question at the end of the book, where the author offers detailed instructions which funds can be recommended to start with, how to obtain and fill out an application form, how to understand statements from the fund, and finally how to calculate your taxes at the end of the year. This book is indeed a benchmark which other books from the "Dummies" series should be compared with: a combination of sufficiently detailed information for those who want to know what they are doing, with step-by-step instructions and detailed advice for those who want to get started right away and do not have the time or the background to study the possible options and make their own independent picks of the funds. Another impressive aspect of this book is that the author makes every attempt to convince the readers not only look into the performance of individual investment vehicles, but also to take into account their individual financial situation, such as long and short term financial goals, tax brackets, availability of retirement accounts, etc. Most other books leave this important aspect completely out of the scope. Finally, Eric Tyson offers a very realistic approach: he makes an excellent job convincing the readers that one does not have to have an MBA to be a successful investor, he explains why mutual funds is possibly the best option for the most of us, he is very frank with the readers as what returns one can (and should) expect from an investment, and finally he suggests the ways how these returns can be reached by offering a choice of 30-40 decent funds. It is hard to get disappointed with this book!

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical mutual fund suggestions you can use today, November 30, 1999

By 

mpozner (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mutual Funds for Dummies (Paperback)

After having read many mutual fund books over the last 7 years, this one cuts through the complexity to give you down to earth suggestions you can use. He names funds to buy and some not to buy. He clearly explains the impact of low operating expenses on total return. He is not afraid to criticize financial newsletters and the Morningstar rating system (it has not done very well in predicting future performance). Best mutual fund book I have read.

62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Primer For Beginning Mutual Fund Investors, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mutual Funds for Dummies (Paperback)

Eric Tyson has put together a very good book for new Mutual Fund Investors. This book will act as a "coach" to get new investors going and growing a portfolio of mutuals. For even more powerful strategies, I strongly recommend "Mutual Fund Strategies" by J.W. Dicks and "More Wealth without Risk" by Charles Givens. These books will "turbo charge" your portfolio.