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- From: pearson_steven@tandem.com (Steven R. Pearson)
- Subject: Re: Recommend an index fund please?
- Message-ID: <1993Jan24.214330.10881@tandem.com>
- Sender: news@tandem.com
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- Organization: Tandem Computers Inc., Cupertino, CA
- References: <1jnq1pINNlvl@almaak.usc.edu>
- Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 21:43:30 GMT
- Lines: 41
-
- In article <1jnq1pINNlvl@almaak.usc.edu>, ajayshah@almaak.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) writes:
- >
- > A friend of mine (abroad) has around $20k to invest. He's looking for
- > a hassle-free S&P500 index fund. Ideally it should work as follows:
- >
- > a) on day 1, he turns the money into fund paper,
- > b) he never ever hears from them again (i.e., no dividends, no junk mail,
- > no mail of any sort).
- > c) at any point in time, it's easy for him to turn the mutual fund
- > paper back into money.
- >
- > Steps #a and #c would be done from abroad, so the company should be
- > conveniently setup to do such interactions. He plans to hold this for
- > a period of several years, so the company selling the paper should not
- > be about to go bankrupt.
-
- I can't speak to the ability to do #a or #c from overseas. Even in the US,
- you can expect to experience some delay caused by whatever means you use
- to send and receive the money. For example, even if you have the proceeds
- of a redemption wired to your bank account, that can take at least a day after
- they receive your request.
-
- I am pretty sure that #b would be quite tricky to achieve. I should
- imagine that brokers and funds have legal requirements to make occasional
- reports regarding the status of ones account. If your friend had a *lot* more
- money, he might be able to snag some big money manager that would be
- willing to handle everything and not bother him. Why is any kind of mail
- a problem?
-
- So, I can't give you an option that definitely fits the description. You might
- want to explore one of the following anyway:
-
- Vanguard, Dreyfus, and Fidelity offer S&P 500 index funds. Others probably
- do as well, but that gives you a starting point. You can get their phone #s from
- 800 directory assistance, the daily listings in Investors Business Daily, a list that
- occasionally is posted in misc.invest, etc.
-
- I also read the other day that either NASDAQ or AMEX was about to offer a new
- product for smaller investors that tracks the S&P 500.
-
- Regards, -steve p. (opinions mine, no warranty)
-