As the old saying goes, dont put all your eggs in one basket. The same is true with your money. Dont put all your investment money in one stock, or even the same sector of stocks. Investment diversification is an easy concept to understand. Whats not easy is deciding where to spread your money. And for various reasons most people dont consider commodity mutual funds.
Most people tend to put all their investment or retirement money in the stock market. They either invest in the company they work for, or buy stocks of companies that they like, such as Ford, GM, Wal-Mart, or any company that is popular. Or they are using a brokerage house for advice and pick and choose from the brokers suggestions. If they have a large sum of money in investments, they probably have a financial counselor. This adviser should have some of their money in the bond market, which is a good, sound investment diversification strategy.
The stock market is easy to understand and most people are comfortable with checking their stocks performance online. The bond market is a little tougher to follow day to day, and most people just buy the bond and wait for their broker or adviser to recommend a change.
The commodity and commodity mutual fund market is a little tougher to follow and to understand. The prices of gold and oil are easy to follow because they are a couple of the most popular commodities. The prices of corn, cotton or pig bellies are not so popular. Unless you are a producer or buyer of these commodities you probably dont have a clue what their price is.
But commodity mutual funds are a great tool to add investment diversification to any portfolio. They offer investment protection from inflation, a weak dollar and swings in the stock market.
Over the last few years, there has been a large increase of investing in commodity mutual funds do to the bad performance of the stock market. With the large amount of choices in the stock and mutual fund market, stock brokers usually do not research or recommend commodity mutual funds. They probably have hard enough time pushing their stock pick of the day, let alone trying to sell commodity products.
For that reason, you need to do your own research into commodities and commodity mutual funds. They can add value to your retirement fund.