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Soccer Would Cup and Paul the Octopus !

Looks like Soccer world cup mania is building up to such extent that we have to look to Paul The Octopus to predict what would happen in these matches. Evidently Paul, a Octopus has till now correctly predicted results of 5 matches in which Germany played (before the match:-). Now the real test would be next semi-final match between Spain and Germany. Who needs referees when you have Paul the Octopus - anyway, referees are not doing a very good job in this would cup !

It was disappointing to see both Brazil and Argentina crash out of Would Cup. But Germany was definitely a much better team on Saturday and deserved the big win ! It's good to see Spain win on Saturday just few minutes before match end. I hope Spaniards have celebrated which may help country's economy and prevent it from getting downgraded by Moody's.

Last two weeks in particular and Q2 in general was very brutal who has invested in stock markets. Not only all gains of Q1 got wiped out but Q2 also took markets down for the year. All indexes down by nearly 7-10% YTD, it's getting tough to predict which way markets are headed.

So this week, I am going to recommend looking at some mutual funds to invest using cost-average method (investing at periodic intervals). Here are some vanguard mutual funds which I particularly like.

  • Vanguard REIT Index Fund Investor Shares (VGSIX)  YTD: 3.29%
  • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (VGTSX) YTD: -11.45%
  • Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Fund Investor Shares (VWEHX) YTD: 3.44%
  • Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Investor Shares (VIMSX) YTD: -3.29%
  • Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VEIEX) YTD: -6.76%
  • All of these funds have excellent long-term prospects, low fund charges and provide way to invest on regular basis so that one can cost average. Now that markets are down and don't know how they will go in short-term, it's good time to get started with these mutual funds and set up automatic investments.

So for now, forget that your portfolios are down for the year and enjoy exciting semi-finals and final of Soccer World Cup !

Have a great week

/Shyam

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi Shyam,
Curious why you picked total international stock market index fund, instead of say "international growth" or even "international value" which have better past history. While past history certainly is not indicator of future results, these two have a much longer track record(28yrs vs 14yrs) and are in similar domain except these two are a bit more focused. total international's performance history in my experience has been a bit of a disappointment even as dollar cost averaged investment. But I would certainly like to peek into your thinking a bit more on this.

Regards,
Sudarsan.
5:11 PM
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