It's time for that uniquely American holiday, Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, and thank you for reading The Investment Edge column and blog.
Have you ever looked at James Balanced: Golden Rainbow? It's a no-load mutual fund (GLRBX), a flexible mix of fixed-income and equity investments nicely suited for a core investment in advisory accounts. It's instructional to look at its performance for the last 10 years:
| 2013 | |||||||||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | Average | YTD |
| 18.2 | 12.99 | 8.36 | 7.9 | 8.61 | -5.52 | 7.12 | 14.06 | 4.77 | 8.13 | 8.462 | 10.49 |
As you may see, Thanksgiving or not, James Balanced: Golden Rainbow is no turkey. Look at what the result would be with SPY, the ETF that closely emulates the S&P 500 index:
| 2013 | |||||||||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | Average | YTD |
| 28.18 | 10.7 | 4.83 | 15.85 | 5.14 | -36.81 | 26.37 | 15.06 | 1.89 | 15.99 | 8.72 | 25.25 |
See the difference? Look at 2008. For many, the difference between GLRBX and SPY might have kept one in the market. Look up James Balanced: Golden Rainbow and see what you think. You could argue that SPY did better for the last 10 years, but not much better. Had I gone back to 2000 and run 12.83 years, given the tech bubble, I doubt that SPY would have won, but you do the research and solve that mystery, okay?
