AboutJohn D Smith, CFP Expertise I can answer detailed questions regarding mutual fund investing, retirement planning, education planning and related financial planning/investment issues. I have a B.S. degree in Financial Planning & Counseling. I am also a Certified Financial Planner practitioner and have performed fee only investment management and financial planning services for the past 11 years.
Answer For mutual funds, you can look at the Vanguard group of index funds for the Russell 2000 and MSCI EAFE and PowerShares QQQ is a fund that invests in the Nasdaq stocks. For S&P 600 exposure, I believe the Dreyfus Small Cap Index fund captures this index. Another option to consider is using exchange traded funds vs mutual funds. Barclay's iShares has funds that covers all of these indexes and would be my preference if you are looking to invest a one time lump sum or occasional larger amounts. The downfall with using iShares vs mutual funds is the transaction fee associated with purchasing the shares each time (similar to a stock purchase) vs the mutual fund purchases we are often times free if purchased directly through the mutual funds company. For more information on mutual fund investing, go to www.vanguard.com. For information on iShares, go to www.ishares.com. I hope this helps.
