Mutual Funds and Shares | What is the best investment for you? | Jobs Vox

When you start your investment journey, you may be comparing the difference between mutual funds and individual stocks, and while it is possible to invest in both, investing in mutual funds is a safer bet for your investments.

Mutual funds allow you to pool your money with other investors for instant diversification, protecting your investments and leaving the management of the fund to professionals to build wealth by investing in these funds. Diversification spreads your money among hundreds of companies rather than a select few. With individual stocks, your money isn’t as protected because it’s in one or a few companies. Basically, all your eggs are in that basket, and as a stock investor, you need to constantly do your research to build a portfolio that can make you money. Experts agree that mutual funds are great wealth-building vehicles.

According to a Schwab study, 15% of current investors started in 2020 – meaning they started their financial journey recently. When starting your journey, weigh the pros and cons and understand where your money is going. “It’s important to understand what you’re trying to achieve,” says Monica Jalife, principal at Withum Wealth Management.

Let’s talk about the differences and why you should put your money in mutual funds instead of stocks.

What is the difference between stocks and mutual funds?

“A stock represents a fractional ownership in an operation,” said Dan Raju, CEO of Tradier, a fintech platform that offers stock and options trading. “A mutual fund takes money from many investors to invest in a combination of stocks and bonds.”

You can definitely make money when you invest only in stocks, but it is very difficult. You need to try and replicate the same returns you get with mutual funds, but you need a lot more capital to do so. Mutual funds give investors the option to invest in a selection of different companies. Experts agree that after building a strong and well-diversified portfolio using investment vehicles such as mutual funds, some money can be invested in stocks, but no more than 5% of the investment portfolio should go to them. Remember that when the company loses money, so do you because the value of your stock goes down. That’s why keeping yourself diversified is an important part of investing.

When you invest in mutual funds, you have fund managers like when to buy and sell in the fund, Jalife added. Because many investors pool their money, the fund can buy more than an individual investor can. Mutual funds protect your money in market downturns and protect your investments immediately.

Here are the most common differences between mutual funds and stocks

	Shares	Mutual funds
Difference	Very limited.	It provides a quick difference.
Cost	No ongoing charges after purchase.	It charges an expense ratio for the life of the investment.
Risk	The maximum is because the performance depends on individual companies.	It provides protection by difference.
Liquidity	Very easy to buy and sell throughout the trading days.	Buying or selling is only possible at the close of the market on each trading day.
Research is needed	Deep research. It requires understanding the performance of each company.	Little, apart from choosing the right mutual fund for your goals and vetting your investments.
Portfolio customization.	High. You can choose the stocks that you like the most.	Small, other than choosing the currency. You have no say in what is included in the fund.

Advantages and disadvantages of mutual funds

The biggest pro to investing in mutual funds is getting instant diversification that protects you from risk in the event of a market downturn. Even if the overall market goes down, it’s unlikely that every company in a mutual fund will go down at the same time to keep your money safe.

And even though mutual funds charge an annual expense ratio, or payout, it’s usually a very small percentage of your total investments. These payments are to manage the money.

“If you don’t know much or don’t have the time or interest to think about which stocks to buy, mutual funds can be a better way to go,” says Jalife.

One thing to note is that if the mutual fund is actively managed, there may be higher fees associated with that fund. For this reason, experts recommend funds that passively track an index that seeks to match the performance of the overall market and typically have low fees.

Advantages and disadvantages of individual stocks

The biggest selling point of buying individual stocks and pros is the opportunity to earn profits above average market performance. It is also the biggest problem because if the company performs poorly, it can cause huge losses.

For this reason, you want to spend time researching a company’s financial history and future projections to make an educated decision about buying shares of stock. Even if you do, it won’t matter much if most of your portfolio is invested in a few companies, especially if the companies are in the same sector, such as energy, materials or real estate.

You are responsible for making your own difference, JLife advises.

Are mutual funds better than individual stocks?

If you have the time and want to get involved, individual stocks can give you more control with lower overall costs, but therein lies the danger. When investing in stocks, you need to understand the general principles of diversification and the risks your money is exposed to. If you don’t have the time or interest, a mutual fund is a better way to diversify with a team of professionals.

Raju added that while there are thousands of individual stocks in the market, there are also many options for mutual funds. So while some research is required to find the right mutual fund for your investment goals and timeline, it’s often more set and forget than picking individual stocks, which requires ongoing research.

Mutual Fund Vs. ETFs vs. Shares

Mutual funds and ETFs are cousins ​​that have a lot in common. “A mutual fund only has an end-of-day value,” explains Raju, but an ETF is a security that you can buy and sell in real time.

You can also buy and sell stocks in real time throughout the day, but a stock represents fractional ownership in one company, whereas a mutual fund or ETF gives you fractional ownership of hundreds or thousands of companies with one transaction.

You can think of individual stocks as building blocks and mutual funds or ETFs as a large pool filled with those blocks. ETFs are a good bridge between mutual funds and stocks because mutual funds have the same liquidity as stocks.

Shares have no ongoing payments. You only pay fees or taxes when you buy, sell or receive dividends. Mutual funds and ETFs have ongoing fees in the form of expense ratios that they pay to manage the fund. Stocks don’t have this fee because you manage them yourself.