Mutual Funds

Grijalva Investments can help you invest for the future.

What are mutual funds?

Think of mutual funds as a collection of investments. They can include stocks, bonds, and other types of investments. Mutual funds can help you by spreading investments across multiple companies. This is also known as diversification.

Mutual funds are managed by professionals. They can be an easier way to hold a diversified collection of investments without needing to monitor the performance of many individual securities.

How do mutual funds work?

Mutual funds are purchased through a brokerage account. You could also buy them in an IRA.

When you're buying into a fund, you're pooling your money with other investors. You can invest a lump sum or a monthly amount.

Funds vary in their approach to risk. Usually a fund manager will invest and adjust the mix of the fund to keep it on track, so you won't have to.

This means you can invest without having to learn the inner workings of the stock market.

Individual stocks versus mutual funds

Understanding the differences between investing in individual stocks and mutual funds can help you decide what works best for you.

	Individual Stocks	Mutual Funds
Cost	You buy stocks at market value, and their cost may include a commission to buy and sell.	The cost of buy-in depends on the fund. You buy fund shares with a set amount of money or contribute monthly. There's no commission, but there are other fees that vary by fund.
Diversification	There may be higher risk when you put all your money in one stock. Your gain or loss depends on how that stock performs.	Spreading the risk over multiple securities can potentially lower overall risk.
Maintenance	They require personal management, research and periodic rebalancing as part of your overall portfolio.	Fund managers monitor the market and may adjust the investment mix of the fund, so you don't have to.