Best Market Index Funds

First of all, why are you seeing a post here on the best market index funds?  Well, I wrote a great post about this over at MoneyAhoy.com and I’d like to circle back to discuss this important topic again.  With so much talk of the US markets being close to a market top, I think this topic is pretty relevant.  So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Which is the Best Index Fund?

Drum roll please……

For my money, it doesn’t get any better than SPY!  I covered in my June monthly money making, money saving, and investment report on this which you can read here.

Why is SPY the Best Index Fund?

There are so many reason why SPY continues to be my top tip in terms of market index funds.  I’ve highlighted several reasons why in my recent post on MoneyAhoy.com which you can review here: best index funds.  This is a fund that is very easy to invest in through your normal investment account, IRA, and the like.

Currently with SPY, you’re getting a quarterly dividend that equates out to be around 2.0% annually.  It isn’t a great dividend, but there is a fair amount of appreciation to help grow your investment.

Why Should I Invest in SPY If We Are Close To A Market Top

Who says we are?  It’s impossible for anyone to know month to month whether the market will be higher or lower than it is right now.  It is nearly undeniable that the Fed’s intervention in the capital markets through quantitative easing has had a significant impact, but it is nearly impossible to know when they will pull the plug.

I still maintain that timing the market is a fool’s errand better left to the fools.  Do what I do and dollar cost average into the market.  You’ll get earnings paid to your through dividends, and who knows – the market could go much higher from here!  I believe that what happens over the next 5 years while people are trying to decide whether or not to get into the market will seem like a blip in the radar 40 years from now when you may actually need to withdraw your investment.  Don’t try to over-think things!

I’m back again to discuss the benefits of Market Index Funds.  I’ve been investing in market index funds for the past several months, and I still feel that the is SPY.  It pays a quarterly dividend and has some of the lowest expenses around.

MoneyAhoy.com – June Update

For the sake of completeness, I’m also going to put up some recent MoneyAhoy.com posts from June.  It’s almost the end of July now, so as you can tell I’m a little behind.  I can believe I wrote so many of these in June – hopefully someone out there finds them at least mildly useful!  I’m especially proud of the Frugal Guide for Buying a Used Car article.

• June 2013 Money Making, Saving, and Investing Report – Here we took a little bit of a step back.  I wasn’t able to make a ton of headway on our goals for the money and we only saved ~48% of our gross income.
• Save Money When Brushing Your Teeth – This was a good one.  I always turn the water off when I brush my teeth, but my wife will frequently leave it on.  I’ve noticed some changes in her behavior since the article.
• Simple Money Quiz – I thought this article was particularly clever about how to grade yourself on earning, saving, and investing income – it didn’t really get all that much acclaim for some reason.
• Frugal Guide for Buying a Used Car – This was my favorite post of the month.  I took a lot of input from reddit.com to put this together.  I plan to use a lot of the tips here to buy a used Corolla.
• Cut Soft Drinks Out of Your Life – This was another good one.  Can you believe that some families spend more than $600 a year on soda???
• The Difference Between Frugal and Cheap – Another post that I got the idea from off of reddit.com.  It was also kinda a dud as there weren’t many comments for it.
• Yard Sale Deals –  6/1/13 – I got some terrific yard sale deals here.  Check it out!
• How to Setup and LLC – Checklist – The final portion of the LLC series.  Hopefully someone will find it helpful!

Final Thoughts

There you have it!  A pretty busy month in June.  Eight posts doesn’t sound like a lot in a month, but it sure felt like it at the time.  Being gone out of the country for a week on vacation meant that it was really only 3 weeks.  I’ve been busy in July as well, so look for another update soon!

-Derek

MoneyAhoy.com – May Update

Well, I’m getting to this update a little late (almost end of July here).  But I wanted to go back and highlight some of the historical posts that I have made on MoneyAhoy.com because I think some of them are really awesome!  I hope you find them useful.

MoneyAhoy.com May Posts

• May 2013 Money Making, Saving, and Investing Report – I actually posted this one in June, but it refers to our household’s finances in May.  The month was a really good one overall.  We got a sizeable bonus for the month, and ended up being able to save roughly 54% of our gross income.  Not too shabby!
• Setup an LLC in Less Than 6 Minutes – In this post, I actually created a YouTube video that goes over how you can setup your own LLC in less than 6 minutes.  I also cover several tips that can end up saving you hundreds of dollars along the way!  I used LegalZoom to setup my LLC (also used as the example in the video), and I couldn’t be happier with them.
• How to Start and Setup an LLC – In this post, I cover why setting up an LLC is important.  I cover comparisons between LLCs, Corporations, Sole Proprietorships, and Partnerships.  You really don’t want to miss it if you’re planning on starting up your own business.

Final Thoughts

There you have it!  That’s my May 2013 update as far as MoneyAhoy goes.  I have some other things in the works that are currently just ideas floating around in my head that I haven’t really put into practice yet.  Hopefully I’ll be able to flesh some of these out and put them into action in the coming months.  I have my MBA classes starting back up at the end of August, so this could become a bit of a challenge to keep juggling all of these balls.  Hopefully, my MoneyAhoy.com posts won’t suffer too much as a result!

-Derek