Whenever you read financial media headlines that say "time to return to the basics," it usually means it's too late to return to the basics. A few weeks ago, I reminded readers that the current bull market is getting old. Well, it's still getting older but my point today is that the bull market is still alive. Therefore its a good idea to make sound choices now before things begin to unwind.
Now think back to the way you felt when the value of your portfolio of mutual funds was cut in half by the Great Recession that ended with the market panic around 4 years ago. If you are like most investors, you didn't appreciate the personal finance periodical headlines that offered the late advice to return to the basics. Like me, you probably wondered why they didn't say that before the market crashed.
Your humble mutual funds guide won't be that financial media columnist. So I'm going on the record today and explicitly telling you now to go back to the basics of mutual funds!