Putnam Mutual Funds

In 1937, George Putnam founded the George Putnam Fund of Boston, which claims to be one of the first funds to offer investors a balance of stock and bonds for their portfolio. Today, that company has grown to manage over $163 billion in assets and over 8 million shareholder accounts. Putnam mutual funds seem to reflect the balance you would expect with such a long history, with a good mix of stock and bond funds for every type of investor. With such an extensive and large historical background, many investors feel safe putting their money with this company, since they have the time-tested numbers to back up their statements.

If you are interested in investing in mutual funds and are not sure where to start, Putnam Mutual Funds offer a wide variety of options for everyone, from seasoned investors to those just getting their feet wet. Putnam mutual funds come in many different varieties, including stock funds, bond funds, high yield funds, and their newest feature, absolute return funds.
Deciding what kinds of funds to invest in

There are plenty of options when it comes to choosing mutual funds. What you must remember when you are reviewing mutual funds is that loads the mutual funds charges the investors. You should also know that there are expiring back-loads, front and back loads, as well as no load mutual loads. If you are planning to invest, you need to know how these different loads work, and how they can take away your investment’s overall performance.

The first step in making any investment, including one in Putnam mutual funds, is to research the funds to see what kinds of returns they are making and what types of loads they have. Do you want high-risk, high-yield funds, or something that will provide slow and steady gain over many years? Putnam mutual funds can offer you just about anything you are looking for in an investment firm, with the experience to back up their claims.

What kind of investment is needed to buy into Putnam mutual funds, and what are the average returns?

The minimum investment to buy into Putnam mutual funds is only $500, which is among the lower prices for investments when it comes to mutual funds. Unfortunately, only around 12% of the Putnam funds are no-load mutual funds.

A no-load mutual fund is simply a fund whose shares are sold without commissions or sales charges. Since there are no costs of entry into this type of mutual fund, all of your money is put to work and you are making the maximum amount of gains from your investment.

Typical front-loads are in the 5.25% range. As of the end of August 2008, the average return on a Putnam fund was 5.97% over the last five years. To put things into perspective, Fidelity funds had averaged around 8.24% over the same time span.

As long as you research your options and choose the best funds for your needs, you cannot go wrong with an investment in Putnam mutual funds, because they are a company with the time and tradition under their belt to offer you the returns you are looking for.