Question

Your healthy 63-year-old neighbor is about to retire and comes to you for advice. From talking with her, you find out she was planning on taking all the money out of her company’s retirement plan and investing it in bond mutual funds and money market funds. What advice should you give her? Reilly, Frank K.; Brown, Keith C.. Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management (Text Only) (p. 56). Cengage Textbook. Kindle Edition.

Answer 1

Answer:

Both mutual funds and money market funds are similar in the sense that they pool money from several investors in a variety of instruments. The difference is that money market funds pool the money in very liquid, short-term securities, while mutual funds do the same but in less liquid, longer-term securities.

The 63-year-old neighbor should therefore split the money around 60/40, 60% of the funds for mutual funds, in order to have long-term security, and 40% in the money market funds, in order to have quick cash available when needed.