When you're investing for your goals, one of the first things you decide is when you'll need to take your money out. The longer you can leave the money invested, the more of it you should put into stock funds - though more rewarding than bond or money-market funds, they're also riskier.
The retirement portfolio presented last week was 100 percent stock funds. Today's portfolio, for college expenses or other goals seven to 10 years away, is a little more conservative. It calls for putting 20 percent in a bond fund, leaving you with a still-hefty 80 percent in stock funds.Subsequent articles in this series will provide portfolios for short-term goals and income. A final column will offer alternative portfolios using index funds.
Following are funds to use to invest for college (with the percentage to allocate to each fund, as well as how to contact the fund, in parentheses):
- Baron Asset (20 percent; 800-992-2766; Web site, www.
baronfunds.com) is a remarkably durable vehicle for investing in stocks of small, fast-growing companies. Last year, when most such funds did poorly, it returned 33.9 percent. Manager Ron Baron, 54, and his analysts spend much of their time on the road visiting companies.
- Fidelity Fund (20 percent, 800-544-8888, www.fidelity.com) is one of Fidelity's lesser-known funds, a plus because the fund remains small, with assets of $6 billion. Manager Beth Terrana focuses on large companies with growing earnings that are selling at reasonable prices. The fund returned an annualized 28.1 percent over the past three years and 20.6 percent over the past five years.
- Loomis Sayles Bond (20 percent, 800-633-3330) is run by Dan Fuss, often called the best bond manager in America. His fund invests in long-term bonds, making it somewhat risky, but a 35 percent holding in high-yield "junk" bonds has cushioned interest-rate sensitivity.
- Montag & Caldwell Growth (20 percent, 800-992-8151) invests in large companies capable of delivering earnings growth of at least 10 percent a year over the long term. Recently, manager Ron Canakaris, 53, reduced the fund's investment in technology stocks to 25 percent of assets - it had been as high as 40 percent - while building up its health-care allotment to 25 percent.
- Tweedy Browne Global Value (30 percent, 800-432-4789) hedges away all its foreign currency exposure, reducing risk. In addition to buying blatantly undervalued stocks, managers Christopher Browne, 52, his brother William, 54, and John Spears, 49, also invest in some better-quality companies that seem inexpensive considering the kinds of businesses they're in.
Next Monday: Investing for short-term goals