The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off on Friday, June 7th. The World Cup is held every four years to crown a world soccer champion. According to Bloomberg soccer is the most popular sport in the world.
FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) estimates that more than 750 million people worldwide watched the 2015 Women’s World Cup and the final match between the USA and Japan was the most watched soccer match in US history.
According to CBS Sports, the USA is the favorites to win the tournament with 7-4 odds, France has the second highest probability of winning at 7-2, followed by Germany at 11-2.
FIFA puts together the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Rankings to objectively rank the best national soccer teams. By looking at past performance, they rank the national teams from strongest to weakest, with the expectation that the teams at the top are likely to continue to perform better than the teams at the bottom.
Did you know that the same ranking information is available for the default menu of mutual funds found in your company 401(k) retirement plan?
Your company 401(k) mutual funds can be ranked from the strongest investment performance to the weakest. Regardless of the direction of the stock or bond markets.
So, you are not a women’s soccer fan? Not to worry. If you follow college football, NASCAR, professional tennis, or professional golf, the player and team rankings work the same way.
Every week the performance rankings are updated. Every game, match, or tournament, the investment performance numbers are crunched and the rankings are updated.
Like in any sport at any level, there is no guarantee that the top-ranked team heading into the World Cup will ultimately emerge victorious. The same goes with stock and bond market investing.
There is no guarantee that the strongest ranked mutual funds on your company 401(k) retirement plan menu will ultimately provide the strongest investment returns in the future.
However, would your investment management decisions improve if you had a list of independent, third-party rankings of all the company 401(k) retirement plan mutual funds available to you?
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
