From: Chris.Hynes@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Chris Hynes)
Subject: 20th Century again
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 01:10:18 GMT

	I have received hunderds of e-mail messages concerning my original
posting, so I felt compelled to post again. Almost 100% of them were
overwhelmingly positive, but some were unnecessarily negative.  The issue
here is that there are a lot of good fund families and there are a lot of
poor ones.  Twentieth Century is a good, solid fund family, though far
from the best.  All information I quote comes from The Wall Street
Journal, USA Today, and Barron's Financial Weekly, two of whom are
arguably the last word on the investment world.  All three sources concur
on this issue: As of December 1991, Growth Investors has gained 4,287% in
the previous twenty years, Fidelity Magellan gained 3937%, while Select
Investors has gained 3128%.  The point here is not to proclaim 20th
Century the king of the investment world.  Compared to an 857% gain for
the average stock fund, all these funds are great.  
	So there is no need to bash 20th Century.  Just recognize it as a
good fund and keep quiet.  Lots of falsities were e-mailed to me, and I
suggest reading The Wall Street Journal issue on 2/10/92, front page of
Money & Investing or a similar article in USA Today (don't know the day)
with an article on the front page of Money entitled "Fund company sneaks
into penthouse."
	Another thing: there is no need to bash me personally just because
I have settled on investing in one fund family after experimenting with
others and deciding 20th Century had the lowest fees for a fund family of
its quality, and I have been very satisfied with my returns.  That does
not make me a blind follower of 20th Century.  In fact, I invested with
20th Century for about 6 years before I had any idea they were such a
well-known and respected fund.  I originally invested due to their
fee-structure.  To everyone out there: statistics are nice and all, but
the important thing is to get a good return for yourself.  Lots of other
things need to be taken into account.  Every fund has different fee
structures, investment philosophies, and social consciences. 
	I find it amusing that someone wrote that one of 20th Century's
funds was #25 out of 25 on some kind of ratings list.  I thought there
were more than 25 stock funds out there?  Anyone care to back me up on
that?  The truth is, there is not much difference between the best fund
and the 25th or the 100th fund.  
	I am constantly reviewing prospectuses from other companies, but
ususally there fees rule out my investment.  You see, I am a small
investor with little money.  I have never seen another company who treated
small investors in such a manner.  "Samll investors become big investors,"
according to President James Stowers, Jr.  You gotta like that.

To the hundred or so people who have e-mailed me, 20th Century's number
once again is 1-800-345-2021.  For those of you with a chip on your
shoulder, close you eyes or kill this immediately.  I hope that the
purpose of this newsgroup is to bring people into the investment world,
not exclude them.  If anyone is interested, I may get around to posting
some more information on 20th Century, including transcripts of articles I
have read.  Good luck to everyone.


Christopher Hynes

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