Personal financial health: Index investing 101 for veterinary professionalsAugust 28, 2018Index investing can be a great tool for veterinarians to utilize. Index investing refers to buying an "index," such as the broad stock market, using a single investment. For example, buying the "market" is a popular way in which index investing can be achieved. By purchasing shares of a market-based index fund, just like purchasing a stock, you get access to the entire S&P 500 (the largest 500 companies listed in the U.S.). This can act as a great diversifier for someone who does not want to pick individual stocks but would rather have returns that closely mirror the market as a whole. Index funds can come in a variety of flavors that track different indexes. Investors cannot invest directly into indexes themselves, so index funds, which are offered in the forms of mutual funds or exchange traded funds, are particularly useful for a busy veterinarian who wants to invest in the markets, but doesn't want to get into the granularity of researching particular stocks. An additional benefit of index investing is that companies that offer these products have done so at very low-fee levels—theoretically making the returns of the actual index and the fund similar. A popular approach …
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