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Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy
Do you mean for 2006 or for the last 3 months? I assume for 2006.
How consistent has that performance been? How did they do when the markets were crap a few years ago?
Also, what are the fees involved... i.e. what do you actually take home at the end of the day. A great return means nothing if they take half the pie.
PS - Syl beat me to the punch.
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They would most likely tell you, once you start contributing to a fund, meant as a retirement fund, to stay in it for a minimum of five years. Their idea is that typically, historically, the economy works in 5 year cycles: 3.5 years of growth, 1.5 years of decline. Riding through these cycles, and contributing in regular intervals (dollar cost averaging) is a reliable means to achieve moderate growth. It isn't certainly get rich quick.
As far as fees go, when I was there, we were only allowed to sell funds which had deferred sales charges. Meaning there is no up front cost to the investor, and the fee is based on how long you keep your money with that fund company. After 5-7 years, (which fits the plan they propose) there is no fee left. You can sell the shares with no penalty. Say if you sold after a year, I think it was around 3-5%. There are funds with front end, and rear end sales charges as well, but we did not work with those.