Im looking to get a few opinions on what mutual funds people would invest in for a short term (4-5) years. I am looking for a moderate risk and return I guess, with a smaller chance of loss of capital. I have looked at Fidelity Balance Fund and Vanguard's STAR fund. Any insight is appreciated.

Seems pretty medium term but maybe I'm just young

I'm still researching this myself. Anyone have any reccomendations on NALFX?

Its focused primarily on alternative energies--which have boomed recently because of increases in energy costs.

Im looking to get a few opinions on what mutual funds people would invest in for a short term (4-5) years. I am looking for a moderate risk and return I guess, with a smaller chance of loss of capital. I have looked at Fidelity Balance Fund and Vanguard's STAR fund. Any insight is appreciated.

I would consider most equity (stock) funds to be an inappropriate vehicle for a short-term 4-5 year investment. What kind of rates of return are you looking for? The top-paying savings accounts currently are around 5.15% APY, with of course taxes deducted from this. The bond holdings in a balanced fund will offset some of the volatility of the stock holdings but I would still question the wisdom of investing a large part of your capital for such a small time frame in a balanced fund.

Yeah, I'm also thinking about re-balancing my investments & adding something for a short term. You guys on this forum along with general investment sentiment (from what I can gather from reading "The Economist" and "Money" magazines) is pushing me to become a bit more conservative, despite a long time-horizon for most of my investments. I guess you can't time the market, but you can sort of read the signs and try to cushion the possible blow... So please read below & offer comments.

As far as re-balancing, I'm gonna dump Vanguard Balanced Index Fund (VBINX) for Vanguard Star (VGSTX). They're pretty similar as far as distribution (65stocks 35 bonds) but VBINX has been a real laggard for me over the past 2.5 years and my parents have VGSTX and it's been quite a bit better for them. VGSTX is a "fund of funds" and my general impression is that 'dedicated' stock or bond funds do better than hybrids -- maybe due to management?? Comments?

I've also had a good run (who hasn't) with commodities & emerging markets lately, up to a point that 55% of my portfolio is foreign markets & around 20% is commodity-related stocks both foreign & US. (Exxon, Gasprom and mainly T-rowe price New Era fund (PRNEX) etc.) and only 10% is now bonds. I'm not gonna sell anything per se (or should I?), but will drastically reduce contributions to those two areas and shift to bonds, especially higher yielding corporate bonds & intermediate maturity. (Hopefully raising them up to 20% of the portfolio by the end of the year). Having finally gotten around to reading that Bill Gross PIMCO commentary from August, a lot of what he says makes sense. I think once I'm done, I'll have a bit more of a cushion in case of a short to mid-term market downturn, while still maintaining solid holdings in real estate, commodities & developing markets (3 areas that I think will continue to have good yields long-term). Thoughts?

It seems better to rebalance by funnelling new money (money that you don't get from selling stocks/funds that have become overrepresented thanks to their good performance) into underrepresented asset classes, unless you really know your stocks/funds that have very performed well and fast are about to tumble deep.

Yeah, I'm also thinking about re-balancing my investments & adding something for a short term. You guys on this forum along with general investment sentiment (from what I can gather from reading "The Economist" and "Money" magazines) is pushing me to become a bit more conservative, despite a long time-horizon for most of my investments. I guess you can't time the market, but you can sort of read the signs and try to cushion the possible blow... So please read below & offer comments.

As far as re-balancing, I'm gonna dump Vanguard Balanced Index Fund (VBINX) for Vanguard Star (VGSTX). They're pretty similar as far as distribution (65stocks 35 bonds) but VBINX has been a real laggard for me over the past 2.5 years and my parents have VGSTX and it's been quite a bit better for them. VGSTX is a "fund of funds" and my general impression is that 'dedicated' stock or bond funds do better than hybrids -- maybe due to management?? Comments?

I've also had a good run (who hasn't) with commodities & emerging markets lately, up to a point that 55% of my portfolio is foreign markets & around 20% is commodity-related stocks both foreign & US. (Exxon, Gasprom and mainly T-rowe price New Era fund (PRNEX) etc.) and only 10% is now bonds. I'm not gonna sell anything per se (or should I?), but will drastically reduce contributions to those two areas and shift to bonds, especially higher yielding corporate bonds & intermediate maturity. (Hopefully raising them up to 20% of the portfolio by the end of the year). Having finally gotten around to reading that Bill Gross PIMCO commentary from August, a lot of what he says makes sense. I think once I'm done, I'll have a bit more of a cushion in case of a short to mid-term market downturn, while still maintaining solid holdings in real estate, commodities & developing markets (3 areas that I think will continue to have good yields long-term). Thoughts?

You'll get a much better answer to this question at diehards.org.

You'll get a much better answer to this question at diehards.org.

Yep, it's probably the place to be for sound investment advice.

yes i would agree but every investment should be well planned and executed well.