| Investors have increasingly turned to mutual funds to save for education, retirement and other financial goals. With mutual funds, investment dollars of many investors are pooled together to purchase individual securities in a portfolio. Investors become owners of shares in the fund, just like he or she might own shares of stock in a corporation such as IBM, Google or Southwest Air. The difference is that a fund's only business is investing in securities. The price of the mutual fund shares is directly related to the value of the securities held by the fund. Mutual funds offer investors advantages such as professional management, a wide variety of investment choices, diversification, convenience and competitive costs. |
