Financial Newbiefilter: Should I sell this mutual fund I bought when I didn't know what I was doing? I've recently gotten my finances into a semblance of order. The one festering boil left on my finances is a managed mutual fund I bought five years ago (as of May) when I had a certificate of deposit come due and got strong-armed by a fund salesman masquerading as a financial planner at my banks. I'd like to get the money out of this dog of a fund and into an index fund of some kind, but the tax implications are making my head hurt. I've had the fund for five years. In that case a sale would be taxed as a long-term capital gain, correct? Is there any way to further reduce my tax liability if I'm immediately reinvesting the proceeds from the sale in a different fund?

Financial Newbiefilter: Should I sell this mutual fund I bought when I didn't know what I was doing? I've recently gotten my finances into a semblance of order. The one festering boil left on my finances is a managed mutual fund I bought five years ago (as of May) when I had a certificate of deposit come due and got strong-armed by a fund salesman masquerading as a financial planner at my banks. I'd like to get the money out of this dog of a fund and into an index fund of some kind, but the tax implications are making my head hurt. I've had the fund for five years. In that case a sale would be taxed as a long-term capital gain, correct? Is there any way to further reduce my tax liability if I'm immediately reinvesting the proceeds from the sale in a different fund?

My 401k retirement plan through the company I work for is managed by Fidelity Investments. I have read recently that a "high-load" mutual fund will often return poorer yields than a "low-load" or "no-load" mutual fund. How do I find out if my plan is high-load, low-load, or no-load?

A friend needs to find a good place to park some money that will ultimately be used for house down-payment purposes. Help me come up with a few good investment options. My friend has around $100k sitting in a low-yield savings account. It pains me to see the cash left there when better options are legion. Key points: the money will be invested for around 1-3 years. I think one or two good mutual funds would be a reasonable choice, but am not really an investor myself so I don't have specific funds or fund families to which I can point my friend. Other options are welcome, of course, provided they are relatively conservative and are low-maintenance (i.e. they do not require active monthly monitoring; keep in mind that my friend is relatively young and is not an experienced investor).