How do I Choose the Best Monthly Income Funds?

Monthly income funds are investments that will pay out a portion of profits earned on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Most often, these investments consist of mutual funds containing bonds or dividend-paying shares. Choosing the best monthly income funds depends on your aversion to risk, payout ratio for the funds and amount of active management you expect from the brokerage house of financial company selling the investment. In the modern business environment, a variety of funds exist for investment purposes.

Like any investment, monthly income funds have some inherent risk. Investors can limit this risk, however, by choosing conservative funds or diversifying risk through a variety of investments. For example, a conservative fund primarily consists of cash savings accounts and government or business bonds, which are low interest, low risk investments. While the profit potential is certainly much less than other funds, investors are reasonably assured of protecting the principal invested in the monthly income funds.

A moderate risk fund will include a mix of business stock and government or business bonds. These funds have more risk with a greater potential for financial returns. Many times, these funds represent moderate risk for investors. High risk, high return funds include mostly stock within their individual portfolios. While investors will have the greatest opportunity for earning financial returns, they also stand to lose the most amount of money. Younger or aggressive investors often select these funds.

Another choice for investors is the payout ratio for their monthly income funds. Three payout levels are common: maximum, enhanced and moderate. Maximum payout funds will return more money on a periodic basis rather than reinvesting generated capital back into the fund. This is the most conservative fund, as the investor will receive his earned money rather than allowing it to possibly be lost to market downturns. Enhance payouts are again the moderate option for monthly income funds. This attempts to create equilibrium investing in these funds. Moderate payout funds tend to pay out the lowest amount of earned income. This allows the investor to automatically reinvest her financial returns into the funds, hopefully increasing the investment in future periods.

Most investors are not able to manage their income funds on their own. Using a brokerage house or other financial corporation will typically increase the fees and costs associated with these funds. This reduces the funds’ rate of return and can result in an aggressive fund to lose money for the investor. Therefore, investors must find the cheapest funds available to avoid high management fees.