A Sample Mutual Fund - 91 Years of Investing

In our last presentation, we focused in on just one of over 12,000 mutual funds. We chose ICA, the Investment Company of America. One of the main reasons we chose this mutual fund is because of its longevity. It has been in operations since January 1, 1934. (Actually, it was originally started in the 1920's but the portfolio management company that makes the investment decisions was changed on December 31st, 1933.) In the presentation below, we take a look at what prudent, consistent, long-term oriented investing can do for us investors. The results are impressive.

Video - Audio

Here is the hypothetical illustration from the above presentation:

ICA - 91 Years of Investing

Document on class web site

The Top 75 Holdings of ICA

So what kind of investments does a mutual like ICA own? "What's under the hood?" ICA is categorized as a domestic, growth and income, stock mutual fund. Mutual funds such as these are sometimes called core or blend or value funds, depending upon the mutual fund family or the mutual fund analysis firm. Take a look at the Top 75 Holdings of ICA as of December 31, 2024. Here you will see many large, well-established companies with long histories of paying growing dividends. Many of these companies have their roots deeply embedded in the global economy. Here is the audio commentary for this document.

The Benefit of Time

You may have noticed that we keep imploring you to keep a long-term perspective. In this document, The Benefit of Time, we see why. Assuming the world does not end, as long as we invest in the types of companies that we see in mutual funds such as ICA and keep a long-term perspective, we should receive a reasonable and healthy rate of return. But in any one given year? Right! We don't know what is going to happen. That is why we keep a long-term perspective, especially when markets fall. Here is the audio commentary for this document.

Worst Day / Best Day

People tend to fret about when is the best time to invest. You will hear them say, "I think I will wait until the market gets better," or, "Now is not a good time to invest." In this document, Worst Day / Best Day, we see that even if you chose the absolute worst day to invest each year for the past 20 years, you still did pretty darned good. Here is the audio commentary for this document.

But ICA Is Not the Only Successful Mutual Fund With Decades of History

Below is the table from the presentation of mutual funds that have been in existence for over 50 years and have rewarded their shareholders with 10% or higher returns. The news is good!

Mutual funds with 50 years or more of returns above 10%
Investments With Over 50 Years Of Excellent Returns	Annual Return	Inception Date
AMCAP Fund	11.89%	05/01/1967
American Mutual Fund	11.38%	02/21/1950
Fidelity Contrafund	12.99%	05/17/1967
Fidelity Equity-Income Fund	11.19%	05/16/1966
Fidelity Fund	10.44%	04/30/1930
Fidelity Magellan Fund	15.78%	05/02/1964
Fidelity Trend Fund	12.47%	06/16/1958
Franklin Dynatech	10.01%	01/01/1968
Franklin Growth Fund	10.46%	03/31/1948
Franklin Mutual Shares Fund	11.21%	07/01/1949
The Growth Fund of America	13.58%	12/01/1973
The Income Fund of America	10.31%	12/01/1973
Invesco Charter Fund	10.67%	11/26/1968
Invesco Global Fund	11.18%	12/22/1969
The Investment Company of America	12.13%	01/01/1934
MFS Investors Growth Stock Fund	10.69%	01/01/1935
New Perspective Fund	12.03%	03/13/1973
T. Rowe Price Growth Stock	11.21%	04/11/1950
T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund	11.47%	06/03/1960
T. Rowe Price Small-cap Stock Fund	12.68%	06/01/1956
The Dreyfus Fund (now BNY Mellon Large Cap Securities)	10.79%	05/24/1951
Templeton Growth Fund (Franklin)	11.06%	11/29/1954
Vanguard Windsor	11.27%	10/23/1958
Washington Mutual Investors Fund	11.81%	07/31/1952

"But I don't want to wait 91 years!"

As mentioned above, we showcased this fund because of its longevity so we could show you a very long-term time frame. (We also chose this fund because of its impressive track record.) But how many people have an 91-year time horizon?! On the next screen, we will take a look at more realistic investment time horizons. We will see that, especially for young adults, with a long-term perspective, we can build significant wealth over our working careers. When you are young, time is on your side. Time is your ally. When you get old like me, time is not your friend anymore. Oh, well, half a sandwich is better than no sandwich, right?