Which Are the Best Mutual Funds in the Philippines?

There are several types of mutual funds present in the Philippines. We need to k now the features of each type in order to know which of them suit our needs and our personalities. There are four fundamental types of mutual funds, namely, the stock, the balanced, the bond, and the money market. Let's tackle the first thr ee types and enumerate the best of it present in the Philippines. Another term for stock funds is equity funds. From the term itself, this is cons isted of investments of clients placed in pure equities or stocks. It is like in vesting indirectly in the stock market. Instead of monitoring the stock market o n a daily basis, there is an asset management company or a fund manager managing it for the clients. Investing in stock funds is very risky since the performanc e of the stock market is very volatile. However, there is a truth in the saying that "the higher the risk, the higher the return." In most cases, those who inve st in stocks are long time investors who have been very experienced in making lo ng-term placements. In the Philippines, the best mutual funds under this classif ication include Philequity, Philequity PSE Index, First Metro Save and Learn Equ ity, Philippine Stock Index, Philam Strategic Growth, United, Sun Life Prosperit y Phil. Equity, ATR KimEng Equity Opportunity, and DWS Deutsche Philippine Equit y. Bond fund is another type. If a stock fund is a very risky financial vehicle, bo nd fund is the opposite of it. Instead of having the funds invested in stocks, i nvestments of bond fund clients are invested in such vehicles as corporate bonds , Treasury Notes, Treasury Bonds, Agency Bonds, obligation bonds, and revenue bo nds. When bond funds were first introduced in the Philippines, many conservative investors made placements as this used to be an interest-earning vehicle. Howev er, there have been changes in the rulings of the Securities and Exchange Commis sion that changed such financial vehicle from being interest-earning to being ma rk-to-market. In simple terms, bonds funds now also experience fluctuations but it is only very minimal and nothing compared with the fluctuations being experie nced by stock funds. In the Philippines, bond fund is the most popular type of m utual funds since most Filipinos are very conservative investors. The best mutua l funds under this classification include Prudentialife Fixed Income, Cocolife F ixed Income, Sun Life Prosperity GS, Sun Life Prosperity Bond, Philam Bond, ALFM Peso Bond, First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income, Philequity Peso Bond, DWS D eutsche Philippine Fixed Income, and Ekklesia Mutual. An investor who is conservative but wants to try an aggressive type of mutual fu nd may want to try the balanced fund. With the balanced fund, an investor can ha ve the best of both worlds. Fifty percent of the funds in a balanced fund are in vested in the stock market and the other half is invested in stocks. In other wo rds, if the stock market is up, then investors of the balanced fund are expected to earn high too. At the same time, if the performance of the bonds is positive , then investors of the balanced fund are expected to earn high too. In simpler terms, the performance of the balanced fund is greatly affected by the performan ces of the stock market and the bond market. The best mutual funds under the bal anced fund category include ALFM Growth, First Metro Save and Learn Balanced, In c., Philam, Inc., GSIS Mutual, Inc., MFCP Kabuhayan, Optima Balanced, Sun Life P rosperity Balanced, and First Galleon Family. It is true that the type of mutual fund that we will invest in also has to depen d on the type of personality that we have. If we are aggressive, it is ideal to invest in stock funds. If we are conservative, bond funds are the best one for u s. If we want to have the best of both worlds, then placing in balanced funds is highly recommended.