NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) -
You may be drowning in prospectuses, annual reports and quarterly statements because you have too many mutual funds or because you have too many brokers.
Solution: Fewer accounts and fewer funds.
Here's the fix for each. Own fewer funds. You can have a well-diversified portfolio with a total U.S. stock market index fund and a total U.S. bond market index fund.
For more diversity, throw in a small-cap and an international fund and perhaps a real estate investment trust.
Too many funds can leave you with duplicate holdings and a hard-to-track allocation, because similar funds often own the same stocks. To check for overlap, use the portfolio X-ray tool at Morningstar.com.
Invest with fewer companies. Spreading your investment dollars among four funds could increase your chances of meeting your goals; spreading them among four brokerages will get you nothing but extra paper and more account fees.
Worse, if you lose track of what you own, you could accidentally overweight in certain stocks or industries, which will increase your overall portfolio risk.
Investment: A phone call to close each account, which may cost you $50 to $100 at a brokerage.
The payoff: A more efficient portfolio.
Problem 10: Help! I'm buried in documents.
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