Two Funds Worth Considering

by Alan Lavine and Gail Liberman

Sheldon Jacobs, highly regarded editor-in-chief of The No-Load Investor, Brentwood, TN, recommends the following no-load mutual funds.

No-load mutual funds charge no upfront or back end sales charges. So 100 percent of your money is invested in the fund. You have to buy no-load funds directly from the fund group. Many no-load funds are also available though discount brokerage firm mutual fund supermarkets.

Here are two funds Jacobs recommends. The reason: The funds are well managers and have solid track records versus similar funds. Be advised, however, past performance is no indication of future results.

*Fidelity Value. The fund has gained 15.6 percent annually over the past five years ending in July. Rich Fenton has been managing the fund since 1996.Jacobs says Fenton has done well because he buys undervalued mid-sized companies. He buys out of favor companies. He looks for stocks and industries that have lagged behind the market. He won’t buy a stock unless the price is cheap—stocks that are trading below their historical average. The fund owns a lot of technology and health care stocks today.

* T.Rowe Price Emerging Europe and Mediterranean Fund. The fund has a great three year track record compared to its peers. This year it’s up 32 percent through July 2005. Chris Anderson, manger, invest in Easter and Central Europe, Southern Europe and the Middle East. He is heavily invested in Russia, Turkey and Egypt. The fund buys growth stocks with high profitability and lots of business opportunities. Jacobs warns that this is a risky investment. It should be just a small part of a mutual fund portfolio.

Alan Lavine and Gail Liberman are husband-wife personal finance columnists, journalists and authors. They are the authors of "Rags To Retirement," published by Alpha Books. Their columns appear in newspapers throughout New England and the Southeast, as well as online. Their commentary on mutual funds and personal finance is carried by 200 radio stations nationwide every Sunday over Business News Network's Charles DeRose Financial Advisor Show. Al and Gail’s new book is "Rags To Retirement:  Stories from people who retired well on much less than you think," published by Alpha Books.

More articles by Al and Gail can be found here.