Understanding Mutual Funds and Investment Club Investments:

There are lots of similarities between mutual funds investments and investment clubs, and it is very nice that we understand them, as investors. The first similarity is that both are contributory funds/systems of investments. That is to say that the money being invested is not owned by an individual, rather, it belongs to different people. These are funds that are raised from the contributions by the members in of the investment clubs or contributed by different people and handed to a fund manager for investment, in the case of mutual funds. This therefore makes every contributor to the club are partaker of the gains or loses that accrues from the invested funds. Here, there is no separation of funds whereby you may say that Mr A is not eligible for the gains or loses of the investments because his investments were not there. As long as he remains a member of the club, he remains a partaker of the proceeds of the investments. Like wise, Mr B cannot wake up tomorrow and say that he wants the refund of his invested capital because he is not satisfied with the little fraction that was given to him or that he don’t know why they should invest in company A or B. Every member of the club is a partaker of the gains and loss that comes out from the investments, except one person voluntarily decides to withdraw his or her membership. There are some exceptions however, if as in the case of investment clubs, the club’s protocol is violated, or in the case of a mutual fund, the trust deed or the document agreement is contravened, there is always a contention here of people calling for justice, because a law has been broken.

Another similarity between the two is that both of them are for long term investment purposes. Mutual funds usually takes one year for the investments to mature, at the end of which, the profits will be declared and each individual investor will decide on what to do with his own share, whether to re-invest it back, withdraw only the profit or to withdraw totally from the investments. In the case of investment clubs, they have a longer life span before their investment could mature. Usually, it is between three to five years. This is because, they are few in number thereby leaving them with less financial muscle, which now means allowing their investments to stay longer and increase their profit margin. These two investment windows are not get rich quick program, rather they are solid investment programs that needs time to mature.

The third similarity between the two is that the funds are not under the total control of one man, as regards to investing. It involves a lot of brainstorming by the analysts of the company. One man cannot just wake up and say that this is where I want to invest this funds, it must be in agreement with the members of the executive, and because a lot of brain storming is involved, the nitty gritty of every company they want to invest will be trashed out and in the end, they will settle for the best which they have agreed. It is a popular saying that two heads are better than one, and this is one of the reasons for their excellent performances. What would have been omitted by one person will be noted by the second and everything will be critically evaluated.

There are many other similarities between these two investment vehicles, but I want to stop here. Let me hear your own views on this issue.