Selecting either dividend or growth option entirely depends on investment objective and profile of investor.

If an investor wants a regular income through his investment in form of dividend then he can go for dividend option but one thing has to be remembered that dividend is not guaranteed and regular. If a fund house has declared 20% dividend in a scheme last year that does not mean dividend will be declared under the same scheme this year as well and quantum of dividend also varies year after year.

But if an investor is looking for wealth creation by investing for long period of time then growth option can be an ideal as profit generated by fund remains within the scheme and NAV keep growing over a period of time.

So,opt for dividend option if you are looking for regular income from your investment otherwise opt for growth option to build long term wealth and take advantage of power of compounding.

So Whether to go for dividend option or growth option depends on every investor's investment horizon, risk taking capability and objective.

Over me dead body man

@young..allow me please. My largest aversion is @ Equity Funds. My reason is simple, unless I know the fund manager personally (and what he has done for her/himself) I cannot put to chance whether or not we share the same investment styles; entrusting Company Board & Management is where my buck stops. I'd buy a fixed income product as that is more or less a no-brainer. REITs...I'd have to be comfortable with the stage of the cycle the property market is @. A REIT in Kenya is a big NO for me. In Zim YES..as the property market is pulling from the bottom in valuation & rental yields and even better is that mortgage finance is just about resurfacing in the recently dollarized economy..so I have stocks in a fully fledged property Co. called Pearl Properties (not a REIT perse but equal purpose). U can go on to www.pearlproperties.co.zw and look @ their portfolio. Also www.masholdings.co.zw is another listed property company on the ZSE.

In addition, I prefer Pearl as its properties are superior. 2. They have a significant land bank (un-utilised) in prime areas for future growth.

FINAL WORD


My investment in Ghana databank balanced fund yielded 31% last year and currently 13% in half year 2011.
I do not invest a single bob in Mutual fund in my native nigeria, but keyed in to that of Ghana why ?


Databank Bfund comprises
50% Ghana money market instrument
50% Equity spread over 12 African markets.
Can you beat that ? Or can you do that yourself without pool of funds and expertise ?

I do not subscribe to blanket condemnation of mutual funds without detail analysis of various products.


BTW. The databank guys are very transparent and knowledgeable in their investment decision. They form part of the so called foreign investors in various African markets. Also Ghana cedis is a strong currency. 1 USD = 1.450 Ghana Cedis.


www.databankgroup.oom


Disclaimer:- This is not an invitation to invest there, it is just an illustration.Find pasted the 2010 annual returns of MFUND

http://www.databankgroup...UND%20REPORT%202010.pdf



I have earlier pasted it in my thinking outside the box column.