If you are
invested in a mutual fund, have you ever wondered what your
investment was worth? You can find out by using your quarterly
account statement, a newspaper and simple multiplication.
Every three months, mutual fund shareholders receive a
statement that shows how many shares they own and how much a
share was worth at the end of the last three-month period.
This quarterly statement also lists all the transactions -
such as purchase or redemption of shares, any capital gains
distributions and dividend reinvestments - that occurred
during the three-month period and often includes other
pertinent information.
Because the value
of the securities owned by a mutual fund changes, the value of
each fund share changes, too. You can learn how much a share
of a mutual fund is worth on any particular day by checking The
Wall Street Journal. In this newspaper, mutual funds are
listed in a separate section in alphabetical order under the
name of the fund company. Most, if not all other major
newspapers also list the share prices for mutual funds the
same way.
In a newspaper
listing, the latest share price is shown as the fund's net
asset value or NAV. For example, let's say you
owned 75 shares in LMNOP Fund and you wanted to know how much
your account was worth on August 17th. You would look in The
Wall Street Journal for
that day and see that the fund's NAV was $11.13. Then,
multiply the number of shares you own by the fund's NAV to
find out what your investment is worth.
You can also learn
additional information about your fund from the newspaper
listing. In The
Wall Street Journal, the NAV CHG column shows how much the
price of your shares has changed since the previous day. The
Wall Street Journal also
lists a fund's return since the beginning of the year (YTD
%RET) and its three-year return (3-YR %RET). Many other
newspapers provide the same information, but the column
headings may be different. Explore the mutual fund section of
your newspaper to see what information it contains. |