25 No-load funds to consider
If you stayed the course over the past year and stuck with your investing plan, you’re probably feeling much better about your portfolio than you did a year ago. Nearly every investment class — U.S. and foreign stocks, bonds, and commodities — has rewarded patient investors.
Before you lapse into complacency, though, consider some of the risks out there. In the U.S., debt among all levels of government is too high. The same goes for household balance sheets. Employment, income growth and consumption may remain subdued for years to come, weighing down economic expansion. Interest rates, which essentially declined for nearly 30 years (lifting bond returns), have nowhere to go but up. And the picture is no cheerier in Japan and most of Europe.
Many risks — excess leverage, government deficits, higher taxes, currency instability, defaults by nations — will stay with us for years, so it might be time to build more diversification and safety into your portfolio. And because you can make a plausible case for inflation or deflation, you might also want to build in protection against either occurrence.
It is with these goals in mind that we made some adjustments to the Kiplinger 25, our favorite no-load funds. In particular, our new list includes a short-term bond fund and a merger-arbitrage fund. Our method of picking funds remains the same. We prefer funds with low fees run by managers with long, solid track records who work for fund families we trust. We like funds with low turnover that investors can hold for the long term.
Kiplinger’s 25 Favorite Funds
US Stock Funds
• Akre Focus — AKREX
• Arbitrage Fund R — ARBFX
• Baron Small Cap — BSCFX
• Dodge & Cox Stock — DODGX
• Fairholme Fund — FAIRX
• Fidelity Contrafund — FCNTX
• Fidelity Low-Priced Stock — FLPSX
• FPA Crescent — FPACX
• Pimco CommodityRealRet Strat D — PCRDX
• Primecap Odyssey Growth — POGRX
• Selected American Shares S — SLASX
• T. Rowe Price Equity Income — PRFDX
• T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth — RPMGX
• T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value — PRSVX
• Vanguard Dividend Growth — VDIGX
• Vanguard Selected Value — VASVX
International Stock Funds
• Dodge & Cox Intl Stock — DODFX
• Harbor International — HAINX
• T. Rowe Price Emg Mkts Stock — PRMSX
Bond Funds
• Dodge & Cox Income — DODIX
• Fidelity Intermediate Municipal Income — FLTMX
• Harbor Bond Institutional — HABDX
• Loomis Sayles Bond — LSBRX
• Vanguard Infl-Protected Secs — VIPSX
• Vanguard Short-term Investment-Grade — VFSTX
http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/109421/our-25-favorite-funds