Balanced funds invest part of their money in stocks and
part in bonds and U.S. treasuries. The asset allocation
is decided by the fund manager, who has no restrictions
on what mix to use in an attempt to achieve investment
goals, and may include risky sector stocks and
international stocks. The central idea though, is to
lower risk and provide consistent returns.
The top-performing balanced fund through the end of 2001
is the Transamerica Preferred Balanced, returning a
total 5 year 143% gain, versus the average balanced
fund’s 60.9%.
But still, compare to the S&P 500’s 97.7%
total return over the same time period.
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