Hang tough. If you're new to investing, and you thought there was a free lunch out there, it's time to sober up. Maybe you thought Internet funds did nothing but go up.
Merrill's record looks better than it is when you consider the bad funds they've merged away. They swept quite a bit under the rug.
When you have this tremendous bull market, funds do seem boring, ... A lot of people have discovered Internet trading, and mutual funds don't give you the thrill of seeing your stock go up 50 percent.
The good news is that growth funds that are down this year, if you've been in them for 18 months or more, you've still made tremendous returns,
It was a tough quarter, but a lot of funds are still up for the year. A little sobriety never hurts.
All of these funds you could own for 10 or 20 years. With all of them, I have a fair amount of confidence that things will go well for a long time.