Finvest

Your guide to ETFs and funds, the whole market in one share

What a fund actually is, how the ETF wrapper works, the five-minute fund check, the evidence on fees and active management, and a walk through the specialty aisles with your wallet intact.

Start reading: Chapter 1

13 chapters · 4 calculators · evidence first · www.getfinvest.com

Educational material only. This guide is not individualized investment or tax advice. Markets involve risk of loss; historical figures carry their sources and periods, and are not promises.

Part I · What a fund is

What a fund actually is

Pooling, NAV, and the wrapper idea: how 3,500 companies fit inside one thing you already own.

ETF vs mutual fund

Same basket, different plumbing: end-of-day NAV vs all-day trading, and the in-kind swap behind the ETF tax edge.

Index funds and what passive really means

From Bogle's folly to over half of US fund assets: what an index fund does, and what passive does not mean.

Part II · Choosing well

Reading a fund page in five minutes

Five lines tell you almost everything: fee, mandate, size, spread, tracking. The checklist with pass marks.

The expense ratio

Two funds, same 7%, thirty years: $75,063 vs $57,435. The leak no statement ever shows.

Active funds, honestly

79% lost to the index in 2025, and winners rarely repeat. The fair case for active, and the burden of proof.

Part III · The specialty aisles

Bond funds vs individual bonds

Why a safe fund fell 13% in 2022, duration in one sentence, and matching the fund to your horizon.

Thematic and sector funds

Roughly 1 in 10 thematic funds survived and won over 15 years. The launch machine, and the explore-sleeve rule.

Leveraged and inverse ETFs

A 3x fund fell 53% while its index rose 8%. The daily reset, worked exactly, and who these are actually for.

Buffer and defined-outcome ETFs

The cap, the buffer, and the cheap alternative nobody pitches: owning less stock. The honest comparison.

Covered-call income ETFs

An 11% yield is not an 11% return. What the income machine sells away, and when it loses to plain ownership.

Part IV · Putting it together

The three-fund portfolio

The boring masterpiece: the whole market in three lines at 0.035% a year, and the split you can actually hold.

The first-fund path, the five-line fund check, the annual owner's hour, a glossary, and every number sourced.