If you have 5 or 6% college debt I am doubtful that you should invest in the stock market unless you have the possibility ofa match in your 401k.A great many experts such as John Bogle think the average return over the next 10 years will be about 6% . THis makesa riskless ^% paying off loans apretty good idea./ And, if your debt is say 3 0r 4% that seems like a close decision.I made my first stock market investment about 30 and it was years before I had as much as 20K in the markett

From the people who brought you the Merger Fund:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1572617/000089418917003980/wcmalt-credit_485a.htm
(WCM = Westchester Capital Management)

JoJo, agree completely. Even today, as a debt-free GenX'er with a nice salary and comfortable but modest lifestyle, that once-a-week dinner delivery on the weekend still feels like a treat to me. But to do it every day? Sheesh.
Ahd the uber-expensive daily fru-fru drinks, I don't get it ... let alone waiting 15m on life for a $3 cup of drip coffee. REALLY??

I agree w/the comments above. I'll also add, maybe they don't have a ton of disposable money to invest b/c they're paying off student loans?

But they have enough to blow on booze, frappuccinos and eating out 5 times a week...

I agree w/the comments above. I'll also add, maybe they don't have a ton of disposable money to invest b/c they're paying off student loans?

But they have enough to blow on booze, frappuccinos and eating out 5 times a week...

I bought ARTFX a few weeks ago for my IRA through Fidelity. Started with a $2,500.00 minimum and will DCA over the next 5-6 months.

This is not my conclusion thou. I am holding on to stuff purchased years ago either at a discount (pdi) or at par (pty). What keeps me in them is extraordinary and consistent NAV performance and reinvestment at a 5% discount. I wouldnt buy at these levels, but am not selling. I did sell PCI, DMO, DSL - DMO just insanely expensive provided its scheduled termination, the other two are just more volatile due to EMD exposures.

Drove over to Fidelity and asked them about APDFX, among other things that wanted to inquire about. Told that the initial minimum for an IRA is $250,000. So that ended that.

Not much help, but at Schwab, the min is "just" $100K.
At Fidelity, if you look at the "Fees and Distributions" tab for a fund, you'll find the mins listed. Here's that tab for APDFX.

Most investors want know if their asset allocation is correctly set to their risk tolerance until we get into a severe market downdraft. If one waits too long in the downdraft to start to trim their positions, raising cash, then they might indeed be better off to just ride out the storm. However, I have certain positions I plan to trim and others I plan to raise (including cash) in a stock market decline. The consept is to move money that is invested in the area of greater risk on the right side of the portfolio left towards areas of investment with less risk.
That is why my asset allocation has investment ranges for my portfolio's areas of investment. For the cash area my ranges are from 15% to 25%, for my income area the ranges are from 25% to 35%, for my growth & income area the ranges are form 30% to 40% and for the growth area the ranges are from 10% to 20%. In extreme market declines cash can be temporarily held above the 25% mark while most of the trimming would come from the growth area of the portfolio since it consist mostly of all equity capital appreciation type funds where the greatest risk is found. I use my market barometer as a tool to help me throttle my asset allocation and rebalance it from time-to-time based upon my market read. Currently, if I were to completely sell out the growth area that would raise my cash allocation to about 35% if all were moved to cash. In the rebound, I'd load the growth area while reducing cash. Most likely, I'd stand pat in the income and growth & income areas of the portfolio.
In my book ... Buy & Hold does not mean hold forever. Even Mr. Buffett makes holdings adjustments within his massive portfolio form time-to-time based upon his firm's market read.
I have already developed my market downdraft management plan just in case the market storm arrives. Usually, these market storms come quickly and are unexpected.
Are you prepared?
Old_Skeet

@BobC: I bought CIM in June of 2015 @$14.55 per share, and CIM-A in November of 2016 at $24.56. I have a SLO in for CIM at @15.00, and have no worries with CIM-A will wait for 2021 call
Regards,
Ted

FYI: Be honest with yourself: If you can’t hold on during a bear market, it’s time to reduce exposure.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.wsj.com/articles/everyones-a-buy-and-hold-investor-now-but-can-you-stay-that-way-1502071861?tesla=y

Just curious, Ted, how you look at CIM. Fixed-income? What would be your trigger to sell? Looking at trading volume, currently at 1.5 million shares, and only 150,000 in 2008 when the bottom fell out of the mortgage market. Looks like it would have been darned difficult to unload it and not suffer through the 77% loss. The share price of $74.50 in December 2007 vs. $18.75 today. Ouch! You obviously have done well, but hope you have an exit strategy...just in case. Regards.

Frankly ... and I don't mean to start a dogmatic fight here ... but I've never been a big fan of such "rules" about allocation percentages, rebalancing, and so forth. I don't rebalance any of my long-term accumulating portfolios, other than to make sure it's allocated in sectors/companies/position sizes that let me sleep well at night. (I'm 90+% in equities and equity funds across my various accounts....but what works for me may not work for someone else, as is the nature of many things in life, including investing.)
My 403(b) is 95% in one largecap equity fund (RWMGX) with a smidgen of idle cash in the account ready to deploy onto that position if there's a market swoon before employer contributions resume in the new academic year.

401(K) is a long term investment for 30-50 years horizon. Unless one is invested in target dated funds, rebalancing on a regular basis (quarterly or annually) is necessary rather than leaving it on autopilot.

All ratings have been updated on MFO Premium site, including MultiSearch, Great Owls, Fund Alarm (Three Alarm and Honor Roll), Averages, Correlation, Dashboard of Profiled Funds, and Fund Family Scorecard.
The latest up-market cycle reached 101 months, from March 2009 to July 2017, inclusive ... about 8.5 years.
Annualized return for SPY over that period: 17.8%, or just under 300% total return ... for those wise, lucky and flush enough to invest at the bottom ... and brave enough to hold.
Remember when this was the most hated bull market? And to some, it remains so.
The top 10 US Equity funds over this period, based on absolute return, are shown in table below. Most have nearly doubled SPY total return and interestingly, three are PIMCO equity funds!

FYI: EM equity fund saw their 20th straight week of inflows, with investors putting $1.2 billion.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.barrons.com/articles/money-keeps-pouring-into-em-funds-1501869501?mod=hp_RTA&;

@AndyJ: I happen to own both CIM & CIM-A with the following performance records. Your right a real horror story, not !
CIM: YTD 16.57%
1-Yr. 25.95%
3-Yr. 16.67%
5-Yr. 22.42% +10% Yield
CIM-A: YTD 2.88% +8% yield
Regards,
Ted

401(K) is a long term investment for 30-50 years horizon. Unless one is invested in target dated funds, rebalancing on a regular basis (quarterly or annually) is necessary rather than leaving it on autopilot.

Hennessy has been raising the fee since they acquired the fund.
They then introduced an 'institutional' share class with a $250,000 minimum - with a lower fee than the (original, now called) 'investor' class, and in a very! shareholder-unfriendly manner - did not place the original investors in the 'institutional' class.
Aside - the current institutional GASFX ER is not that different from what the original ER had been, prior to Hennessy acquisition.
Other funds - can't recall any specifically at the moment - have given the original shareholders - this "grandfather" benefit and lower expense ratio.
I currently have gains on the fund, that prevent me from liquidating the fund without paying the cap gains tax. If I could sell without paying the C/G tax, I would sell it immediately.
FWIW (and too late for my "old money") you can duplicate the exposure of the fund, through a mix of MLP and Utility ETFs. The expense ratio would be, in aggregate, MUCH lower than GASFX, and it would be more tax efficient.
Below - using the wonderful PortfolioVisualizer.com, are a couple of examples
Match GASFX with MLPX + VPU: http://tinyurl.com/GASFX-match
Backtest Match of 35% MLPX + 65% VPU, with Annual[*] Rebalancing: http://tinyurl.com/GASFX-backtest
[*] Other rebalancing options are available. See menu at PortfolioVisualizer, linked above.
Since
http://www.etf.com/VPU has ER of 10 bps
http://www.etf.com/MLPX has ER of 45 bps
the blend has ER of about 22 bps, which is 79 bps less than the larded up GASFX Investor class.

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
Five funds to ride the recovery in European and Japanese small and midsize stocks, for this year and into 2018.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?site=&source=hp&q=Investing+in+Developed+Markets?+Think+Small+Barron's&oq=Investing+in+Developed+Markets?+Think+Small+Barron's&gs_l=psy-ab.4...5480.11488.0.11746.12.11.0.0.0.0.105.838.10j1.11.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.9.663.6..35i39k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.qAhLnNCGpso

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
The future will belong to newer innovations, and the new iShares Exponential Technologies ETF aims to capture that.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?site=&source=hp&q=beyond+apple:+making+a+better+technology+etf+barron's&oq=Beyond+Apple:+Making+a+Better+Technology+ETF&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.35i39k1.6086.6086.0.9171.3.2.0.0.0.0.79.140.2.2.0....0...1.2.64.psy-ab..1.2.140.6.U0gj4_QEI1A
M* Snapshot XT:
http://quotes.morningstar.com/chart/etf/chart.action?t=XT&region=usa&culture=en-US
Lipper Snapshot XT:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/xt
XT Is Ranked #1 In The (MS) ETF Category By U.S. News & World Report:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/etfs/miscellaneous-sector/ishares-exponential-technologies-etf/xt

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
It’s time for some cautious optimism. Income investors have had it tough for too long now, settling for 2% yields on high-quality bonds and stocks. As interest rates creep higher, investors can find much higher-income securities, if they’re willing to take a bit more risk and do more homework.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?site=&source=hp&q=Where+to+Find+11%+Yields+Barron's&oq=Where+to+Find+11%+Yields+Barron's&gs_l=psy-ab.3..35i39k1.5541.11366.0.11610.12.11.0.0.0.0.77.643.11.11.0....0...1.1j2.64.psy-ab..1.11.643.6..0i3k1.7CuF66raxuc