Awiolobby " The home of Tactical Articles and General Topics"

There are different types of investors out there. There are those who like to be active in their investments, watching them closely and trading them often. And then there are those who just like to sit back and let their investments work for them Index mutual funds are designed for the latter. If index mutual funds were a pet, they would definitely be cats: Very low maintenance.

Index mutual funds are perfect for what is commonly referred to in investing jargon as the buy-and-hold investor. If you fit this description, then you might ant to read on.

Index mutual funds are actually mutual funds that try to work like the stock market index. This means that they use similar percentages when it comes to tracking the investments they offer.

But index mutual funds also have certain advantages not found with other mutual funds. For starters, the fees for the investor are often lower because index mutual funds don't require intense management from a large staff or fund manager.

Index mutual funds also tend to be more tax efficient, given that investors who invest in these are not required to pay out capital gains each year. Because index mutual funds tend to be held much longer, the money that would have been used to pay out these taxes can instead be used to further investing. That means more of the money you invest stays in the mutual fund.

For these very reasons and many others, index mutual funds are probably one of the investing world's best kept secrets. Tapping into these mutual funds can be very lucrative indeed.