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We often receive notes from members of the MFI community offering news, tips or other items of interest to fellow members. While these notes usually begin as posts to one of our newsgroups, sometimes they may be too lengthy to be posts, require special formatting, or should be preserved beyond the period in which posts are up on the boards. We therefore offer the MFI Clipboard. If you have an item you think may be suitable for the Clipboard, please write to us. Please note that the items posted on the Clipboard are written by members of the MFI community: Neither MFI nor BES assumes any responsibility for the accuracy of the content or the opinions expressed therein.Back to Main Clipboard Listing Corgicorner's No or Low Initial Investment Fund Family ListIt is absolutely essential that you see the NOTES at the bottom of this listing. ********************************** For an excellent article on investing for small investors, visit www.brill.com/clip.html, a dissertation by David Snowball that is very well worth your reading, even though not all of it is up to date by his own admission. Hopefully he will update it shortly. ********************************** WHY THIS LIST? For the first time investor, it is usually less expensive to invest directly with a Fund Family than to purchase a fund through a fund "supermarket" brokerage house such as Fidelity, Waterhouse, Schwab, or E-Trade, etc.. In most, if not all cases, fund supermarkets require a much higher dollar amount to open an account. Also, their service charges might be excessive if, in starting off, a relatively small amount of money is involved. HOW TO USE THIS LIST: This is a list of some of the Fund Families available to investors. The first column gives you the Fund Families. The second column gives you the minimum amount necessary to open a regular/personal account, and the minimum amount of a subsequent investment. The third column gives you that information if you were going to open an IRA type account. The fourth column is very important because it tells you the minimum, and subsequent, investment if you were going to allow the company take automatic periodic withdrawals from your checking or savings account(s). It is often the easiest, and cheapest, way to establish an account. The final column is self-explanatory. Fund Family Personal IRA/ROTH AIP/SIP 1-800-# min/add min/add *** min/add unless noted AARP 1000 / 50 250 / 50 500 / 100 322-2282 Artisan 1000 / 50 1000 / 50 50 / 50 344-1770 Babson 1000 / 100 250 / 250 100 / 50 422-2766 Baron 2000 / 50 2000 / 50 500 / 50 992-2766 Berger 2000 / 50 2000 / 50 100 / 100 333-1001 Bramwell 1000 / 100 500 / 100 50 / 50 272-6227 Columbia V 1000 / 100 500 / 100 nn / 50 547-1707 Dreyfus V 750 / 100 750 / 100 250 / 25 373-9387 Eclipse 1000 / NM 1000 / NM 50 / 50 872-2710 Excelsior 500 / NM 250 / NM 500 / 50 446-1012 Fasciano 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 50 / 50 848-6050 Fremont 2000 / NM 1000 / 50 50 / 50 548-4539 Gabelli 1000 / NM 1000 / NM nn / 100 422-3554 Gabelli-Westwood 1000 / NM 1000 / NM nn / 100 937-8966 Gateway 1000 / 100 500 / 100 500 / 100 354-6339 Harbor 2000 / 500 500 / NM 500 / 100 422-1050 Heartland aV 1000 / 100 500 / 100 nn / 50 432-7856 ********************** Invesco 1000 / 50 250 / 50 nn / 50 525-8085 Fund Family Personal IRA/ROTH AIP/SIP 1-800-# min/add min/add *** min/add unless noted Janus 2500 / 100 500 / 50 500 / 100 525-8983 Kaufman 1500 / 100 500 / 100 500 / 50b 237-0132 Legg Mason 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 nn / 50 822-5544 Managers V 2000 / 100 500 / 100 500 / 100 835-3879 Montgomery V 1000 / 100 NM / NM 100 / 25 572-3863 Neuberger/Berman 1000 / NM 250 / NM nn / 100 877-9700 Nicholas 500 / 100 500 / 100 50 / 50 544-6547 Northern 2500 / 50 500 / 50 250 / 50 595-9111 Oberweis 1000 / 50 1000 / 50 100 / 100 323-6166 Oakmark 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 500 / 100 625-6275 Pax World 250 / 50 250 / 50 250 / 50 767-1729 PBHG Funds 2500 / NM 2000 / NM 500 / 25 433-0051 Preferred Group 1000 / 50 1000 / 50 250 / 50 662-4769 Reynolds 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 50 / 50 773-9665 Royce 2000 / 50 500 / 50 500 / 50 221-4268 Selected Am.Shs. 1000 / 25 250 / 25 nn / 25 243-1575 Spectra 1000 / 25 250 / 25 25 / 25 711-6141 Strong 2500 / 50 250 / 50 nn / 50 368-1030 T Rowe Price 2500 / 50 1000 / 50 nn / 50 638-5660 TIAA-CREF 250 / 25 250 / 25 nn / 25 223-1200 Third Avenue 500 / 200 500 / NM 500 / 200 443-1021 Turner Funds 2500 / 50 2000 / 50 100 / 50 224-6312 USAA V 3000 / 50 250 / 50 nn / 50 382-8722 Value Line 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 1000 / 25 223-0818 VanWagoner 1000 / 50 500 / 50 500 / 50 228-2121 Warburg-Pincus V 2500 / 100 500 / 100 mtm / 50 927-2874 Westcore 1000 / 50 250 / 50 50 / 50 392-2673 _____________________________ Popular Funds with higher initial requirements: Acorn c 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 922-6769 American Century 2500 / 50 1000 / 50 2500 / 50 345-2021 Amerindo 2500 / 500 1000 / 500 mtm / 100 1-888-832-4386 Ameristock 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 394-5064 Century Shares 1000 / 50 1000 / 50 1000 / 50 321-1928 Clipper 5000 / 1000 2000 / 200 mtm / 150 776-5033 Dresdner 5000 / 250 2000 / 250 not available 726-7240 Fidelity V 2500 / 250 500 / 250 2500 / 100 544-8888 Firsthand 10000 / 50 2000 / 50 mtm / 50 1-888-884-2675 Heartland Value 5000 / 100 not available mtm / 50 432-7856 Jacob Internet 2500 / 100 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 1-888-522-6239 Loomis Sales V 5000 / 50 5000 / 50 5000 / 50 633-3330 Marsico 2500 / 100 1000 / 100 1000 / 50 1-888-860-8686 Muhlenkamp 1500 / 50 1500 / 50 1500 / 50 860-3863 Nevis 10000 / 500 2000 / 500 mtm / 50 1-877-446-3847 Oak Associates 2000 / 50 2000 / 25 2000 / 25 1-888-462-5386 RS 5000 / 100 1000 / 1.00 mtm / mtm 766-3863 Safeco 2500 / 100 1000 / 50 mtm / 100 624-5711 Schwab 5000 / NM 1000 / NM mtm / 100 435-4000 Scudder 2500 / 50 1000 / 50 personal 1000 / 50 225-2470 IRA 500 / 50 Stein Roe c 2500 / 50 500 / 50 1000 / 50 338-2550 SoundShore 10000 / NM 2000 / NM mtm / 50 551-1980 Torray 1st time 10000 / 500 10000 / 500 10000 / 500 443-3036 additional 2000 / 500 2000 / 500 2000 / 500 Vanguard V 3000 / 100 1000 / 100 mtm / 100 662-7447 Vanguard Star Fnd 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 1000 / 100 662-7447 Weitz 25000 / NM 25000 / NM mtm / NM 232-4161 DISCLAIMER: My original idea was exactly as the title proclaims, but I had to change my idea because the list would be very short. In most cases, go by the AIP, by which, in many cases, you can get into a fund with a minimum $500 initial investment, and a maximum monthly withdrawal from your account of $100. A fund/Fund Family's appearance in this list does not constitute a recommendation. This is only a listing. Recommendations are not a part of this list. FURTHERMORE: I am not a teacher. I am not a financial planner, I am not a stock broker. I am not an expert. I am not a professional. I am not authorized by any one or any organization to give you advice. I will sell you nothing. Past performance does not guarantee future performance of a Mutual Fund. If you invest you may lose money. If you are going to invest, THE FINAL DECISION AS TO WHAT AND WHEN TO BUY OR TO SELL IS YOURS. ==================================================== I appreciate and thank David Snowball for the assistance he has provided in compiling, editing, and constructively critiquing this information. _______________________Notes_____________________________ a = their equity funds, other than Value fund b = they have a $5.00 set-up fee for this service c = these funds were recently sold and will become loaded funds by the end of the year d = if you are not comfortable with this, set up a separate savings account in which you can keep a small amount of money. This protects most of your money. AIP or SIP = an automatic investing plan. In most plans you are expected to continue investing until the minimum is reached in which plan you are investing in--personal or IRA mim/add = mimimum/additional mtm = meet the minimum; may vary; call the Fund Family for details. NM = No Minimum, set your own amount. nn = No money needs to be sent in with the application V = some funds within the Fund Family may be more, or less # = roll-over account, possibly a personal/IRA combination, depending on the Fund Family *** = IRAs: remember, $2000. is the maximum amount that can be contributed in any calendar year, as of the present time. The Fund Families chosen are MY choice of what I deemed to be the most popular Fund Families. There was no intended discrimination. Many/most funds are available thru brokerage (SuperFund) houses, some at substantially reduced initial investments. The information provided is for those persons purchasing directly from the Fund Company itself. Kindly remember, some Fund Families have small nuances, so the information may vary slightly, and may not pertain to all of that Fund Family's funds. It is possible that some Fund Families will change their requirements. All information is as of 8/7/2000 You Might Like The Following Websites (these are suggestions only, NOT recommendations) http://morningstar.com/column/forbeginners There are several discussion groups, some of which are on Brill.com, Morningstar, SmartMoney, FundAlarm, etc. amdewolf
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