On November 17 I bought 7 different mutual funds and went to a 100% invested position. One of the funds I bought was Robertson Stevens Information Age (RSIFX) and it has made money as have the other six.

My readers know I don't recommend buying individual issues. Instead I let the best minds on Wall Street pick stocks for me. Yes, they have nice 6-figure incomes, but I can afford them because they do it for free. These market mavens are the managers of the best performing mutual funds. By best performing I mean they have increased share value more than 99% of all other mutual funds and there are 8,500 funds.

When I say "free" it means I don't pay any commission for their service. All I ever buy are the no-load (no commission) funds. Never pay commission for any mutual fund because there is no correlation showing that paying commission brings better results.

Back to RSIFX. On Feb 7, I noticed that RSIFX started to fall out of the top performance funds. The beginning of each month I review my funds to see if there is any need for a change; it takes me about 10 minutes.

Immediately I called my discount broker and placed an order to sell all shares of RSIFX and to put those funds into PBHG Select Equity (PBHEX) fund that was performing better. Good old RSIFX made me 34% which wasn't too bad for about 2 1/2 months, but it wasn't keeping up with the pack.

What happened? From February 7 to February 25 RSIFX went up 2%, but PBHEX went up 10%. That's 8 full percentage points over just 2 1/2 weeks which is a lot of money for a short period of time.

There is another plus when you use a discount broker. I paid zero, nada, nothing, not one penny commission for either the sale or purchase of either fund.

If you want to retire rich, well-to-do or comfortable you must watch your funds on a regular basis and make changes so you are always in the best performing funds at all times.

Al Thomas

Albert W. Thomas has spent most of his life in the field of finance. In 1965 he founded an insurance holding company, Security Dynamics Investment Corporation, after having been an agent and General Agent for several life insurance companies. In 1970 he became cofounder and president of Real Life Estate, Inc., that marketed a unique real estate and life insurance package.

After he became interested in commodities he bought a seat for his personal trading on the Chicago Open Board of Trade, which is now known as the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange. Later he became a full time trader and also acted as a commodity broker for a few select clients. By fellow floor traders Al is considered to be an excellent technical analyst much of which is outlined in his book IF IT DOESN'T GO UP, DON'T BUY IT! It became a best seller on Amazon.

In 1981 he sold his membership on the Exchange and with his wife, Carolyn, lived full time aboard their 41' ketch, the Aumakua (which means guardian angel in Hawaiian). They sailed in Florida and the Bahamas for two years.

He founded World Trading Group in 1984 that grew to the seventh largest introducing commodity brokerage firm in the U.S. with 35 offices from coast to coast, Alaska and Canada. It was sold in 1992.

Al is a graduate of Northwestern University with a B.S. degree in Commerce and is a member of MENSA. He is now president of Williamsburg Investment Company that syndicates his weekly financial column since 1999 to more than 300 newspapers and writes a financial market letter called Over My Shoulder that is quoted in Barron?s and many other publications. A 3-month trial subscription is available on his web site. He is a regular guest on several financial radio talk shows.

His favorite pastime is fishing.

Mr. Thomas is available for speaking engagements. Please call 321-453-5300 for more information.