Most mutual fund investors should focus their attention on long-term issues. After all, one reason to invest via mutual funds is the ability to leave the details of security selection to others and to focus on asset allocation. Thus my first suggestion would be to regularly read about long-term global and economic issues. My own choice here is to read The Economist weekly. I enjoy reading the international coverage but the economic coverage keeps me alert to issues that can result in changes to my asset allocation.
I suspect when most investors think of periodicals for mutual fund investors they think of Money, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and Forbes. I confess I have subscribed to or read all of these in the library over the years, but I am obviously a bit of a "junky". I would not particularly recommend them for all investors. In fact, if you do read them, it is wise to follow Chuck Jaffe's advice and be careful of any articles with the words "now", "next", "best", "top", or "must".
Clearly many investors fill most of their information needs on the web. The two sites I use regularly are
I think asset allocation is the topic that deserves the most attention by individual investors, and yet web sources and popular periodicals discuss these issues only occasionally. That is not surprising since a repeated review of the basics of asset allocation is dull stuff. But the overemphasis on choosing individual funds can easily confuse novice investors. When I was a novice I did not really have the same problem since the number of no load mutual funds was relatively small.
Certainly once your portfolio of mutual funds becomes larger, you might want to subscribe to a newsletter. Over the years I suspect I have tried most of the mutual fund newsletters available. Finding a newsletter that gives you the kind of information you find useful can be a challenge. I personally prefer sober discussion and dislike newsletters that overuse exclamation points. In the old days I used to write to newsletter publishers to get a sample copy of a newsletter but now you can look at sample issues on the web or get trial subscriptions. My favorite newsletter, and the one that most often shapes my asset allocation is the No-Load Fund Analyst . I like the thoughtful discussion of fewer funds in the No-Load Fund Analyst but I still subscribe to The No-Load Fund Investor for its complete listing of performance statistics.
I enjoy reading and have always preferred weekly or monthly periodicals to daily newspapers. For any investor, I think the greatest danger from reading periodicals is the temptation to act on short-term activity. Early on I found that I was most comfortable checking my mutual fund performance only monthly. Now I look over my portfolio casually every month but only look more carefully at the end of each quarter. I find it enjoyable and informative to read periodicals but most of that information results in a certain enjoyment but not action. When in doubt, stay with your basic allocation.
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