Mutual Funds have a five letter ticker• FSTFX – Fidelity Short-Intermediate Municipal

Income• This fund buys Municipal Bonds with a maturity

date of 1-5 years There are several ways to find

information on your fund on the web Morningstar.com – lists funds by ticker

and category Lipper.com – can compare funds via its

“Lipper Leaders” interactive feature

With more than 30,000 Mutual Funds to choose from, we need help!

Most corporate retirement plans offer employees a choice of mutual funds

Employees risk their retirement savings on these funds

A teacher at Roslyn High School can choose among thousands of funds

Many jobs limit you to 10-15 choices

Some funds charge a lot of fees The fees are calculated as a percentage

of the total asset value of your account Types of fees:

• Management fee: For the fund manager’s salary • 12 b-1 fee: For advertising the fund• Report Fee: For mailing reports to shareholders• Front or Back Load: A sales commission fee• Redemption Fee: Charged to investors who sell

prior to an agreed-upon holding period

Total all the fees Divide the fees over your account total This is your Expense Ratio The Expense Ratio lowers your return

• Example:• You received an 11% return on your Mutual

Fund• The Expense Ratio was 2%• Your real return is 9%

Funds with high expense ratios may not deliver higher returns

Like stocks that pays dividends, many funds pay a “distribution”

The distribution helps you increase your return, however:• Distributions are taxed (unless your fund is

in a retirement account, then it gets taxed when you redeem it during retirement)

• You have to be careful when you buy a mutual fund, because you don’t want to “buy the distribution”

The distribution reduces the Net Asset Value• When you “buy” the distribution, it is like

having your stock price drop immediately• You’ll need to read the Prospectus• The Prospectus will tell you when the

distribution dates are Most investors dollar cost average

into their retirement accounts• Sometimes they do “buy” the distribution