First the Good News:

$194,943.

That’s how much you’d have right now if you had put just $10,000 in Bill Ruane’s Sequoia Fund 20 years ago. $20,000 would have fetched you $389,886.

I don’t know about you, but to me that’s a lot of money. Especially when the only "work" you had to do was write a check and watch the profits mount!

Making "easy money" like this — while money managers like Ruane do the work — is a big reason why people are pouring money into funds right now.

Now the Bad News:

Before you jump on the bandwagon — or add even more money into the funds you already own — please take a look at another number:

$836.

This unimpressive figure is all you’d have left if you had put your $10,000 into American Heritage Fund 20 years ago. You’d have done better picking stocks blindfolded than buying this dud. Even buying an unmanaged S&P 500 index fund would have returned $112,808—135 times what was left after American Heritage’s "expert" management!

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Not to pick on American Heritage. After all, it’s hardly the only underachiever out there. $10,000 invested in Ameritor Investment Fund 20 years ago is now worth just $2,014. And anyone who went with U.S. Global Gold Shares Fund 20 years ago hasn’t broken even yet, either.

What’s most shocking is that weak fund performance is the rule, not the exception. The sad truth is that over the past 10 years, a solid majority of stock funds did worse than the unmanaged S&P 500. This means, quite simply, that the majority of these money managers are getting their mega-buck salaries for reducing your return!

The point I’m trying to make should be obvious: picking the right person to look after your money is vital.

Which brings me to why I’m writing you today: to help you make sure you’ve got the absolute best talent available tending your mutual-fund assets. I think I’ve come up with a pretty good way to do that. Here it is…

If I’m right that people are the chief reason some mutual funds do so much better than others, the next step is obvious: make sure you have the best managers working for you. It’s with that goal in mind that I’ve launched an unprecedented investment letter: Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds.

My advisory is the first mutual-fund publication I know of that looks first and foremost at management. We concentrate not on endless statistical minutiae (though we give you all the numbers you need), but on the flesh-and-blood people who make the decisions with your money. For that’s what truly counts!

This focus on people is vital. I’m convinced that knowing the talent you’re hiring — and knowing what that talent is buying with your money — is the paramount consideration in mutual-fund investing. So in my newsletter, you’ll really get to know who’s doing the buying and selling…and you’ll also see where your money is going, as we report on both the methods and the specific major holdings of our featured fund managers each month.

Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds will bring you the select inner circle of top-rung money managers… the perennial all-stars of the money-management league. As you will quickly see, I focus on proven, long-term performers — fund managers who have earned (and are earning!) their records, not those who are coasting on the accomplishments of past masters.

As part of this policy, the newsletter focuses primarily on managers who have run their funds for at least three years. From time to time I’ll look at exceptional managers with less time at that particular helm, especially if they’re mutual-fund veterans with a lot of experience elsewhere. But the point always is to avoid trusting our money to untested rookies.

My insistence on experience lets you and me zero in on the factor that the pros themselves privately rate the highest. In a comprehensive survey of 17 top mutual-fund managers, experience was voted the most important trait a successful money manager could have — even more important than intelligence, patience, logic or decisiveness.

FREE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe now and get a free copy of “Louis Rukeyser’s No-Nonsense Guide to Mutual Funds.” This guide through the mutual-fund maze is yours free when you try a no-risk one-year subscription.

That’s why the funds you’ll see most often in Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds are still being run by the same experienced winners responsible for their past glory. These are the real thing: top-rated funds whose managers have earned their records not in one lucky quarter, but over the test of time.

After all, the only time buying a mutual fund on its record makes any sense is when the talented individual who earned that record is still at the helm. The day a new manager takes over a fund, its track record becomes meaningless. I’m afraid a lot of investors are — without realizing it — flying on planes piloted by untested rookies. What’s more, they’re paying first-class fares for coach seats — and are in danger of crashing at any time. Let’s you and me avoid that flight.

Why the World’s Best Stocks Keep Showing Up in Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds

I think it’s fair to say that Bill Miller knows a thing or two about picking stocks.

An investor who placed $10,000 in his Legg Mason Value Trust at its launch in 1982 would now be sitting on a cool $306,335. $20,000 would have ballooned into $612,670.

Ed Owens is no stock-picking slouch, either. In just the past 10 years, he has turned $10,000 into $68,114 — or $20,000 into $136,228 — in Vanguard Health Care.

What Do These Proven Winners Have in Common?

Besides making their clients considerably richer, each of these standout performers has something else in common: they’ve both recently revealed their stock-picking secrets in my personal investment advisory, Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds.

But that’s not unusual. The country’s best professional investors are constantly rubbing elbows in my newsletter — because it’s the only publication in the country that brings you the absolute cream of the crop of the mutual-fund world.

Now it’s your turn to find out why thousands of happy subscribers consider this the best mutual fund advice available anywhere.

Every month, you’ll get my own exclusive insights on what really lies ahead for fund investors — and how you personally can profit from it. I’ll guide you on the strategy of when and how to invest, and bring in the most accomplished people in the business to give you specific recommendations.

Here’s How It Works

Every month, I go one-on-one with a member of this successful elite of investors and get him or her to tell us, in detail, exactly what they’re doing to beat 99% of the competition.

This way, you see clearly and concretely how some of the most successful investors in the world are adjusting their own portfolios. I advise you to listen carefully. I certainly do.

Getting the specifics from these standouts can be extremely lucrative. Take Edward Owens — his fund is up 21.15% a year over the past 10 years. That’s a heck of a record, and remember, that’s just the average. Plenty of his stocks were up hundreds of percent, doubling, tripling and quadrupling!

Can you imagine how much money you might have made if you could have invested in Ed’s few favorite stocks? If you could have "cherry-picked" the select few with the most potential of all?

Well, that’s exactly what you can do when Ed and his small select peer group reveal their absolute favorite investments in Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds.

Now I’m not advising you to throw caution to the wind and put all your eggs in one basket. We both know that’s silly.

But the fact is, you have one advantage that fund managers like Edward Owens don’t. By law, they’re forced to diversify their funds among a large number of positions. You’re not.

You can be as choosy as you like, picking up Edward Owens’ favorite stock one month, Bill Miller’s the next, and so on. You can build your portfolio at your own pace, as you mull over the most exclusive shopping list on Wall Street. That’s a shopping list that will make — not cost — you money.

That has proven to be an irresistible inside advantage for thousands of avid subscribers. Why not join them and see for yourself why they’re so enthusiastic about the stocks in my fund letter? Just go to the no-risk subscription certificate here.

I Promise to Give You the Whole Story on Mutual Funds — Warts and All

I started this advisory for a pretty basic reason: there is a crying need for a publication that tells you both the good and the bad about the powerful mutual-fund industry. The fact is, the vast majority of mutual funds are far from the money-making machines their advertising departments would have you believe.

Sure, many funds have done OK. And a few have done great. But as their poor performance indicates, most stock-fund managers would lose out to a chimpanzee throwing darts at the financial pages.

In fact, some of these guys are so bad I’d pay them to stay away from my money! And that goes for certain entire fund families too. Some of these less-than-virtuous outfits charge unconscionably high expenses… disguise risky funds as "government-grade" investments… and gouge you with cleverly hidden back-end charges that bite into your capital as you exit the fund.

Who needs this shoddy treatment — especially when there are excellent alternatives to be found? Stick with me and you’ll have your money in fund families like these…

• The fund family that quickly drops money managers who underperform. They don’t give their managers long-term guarantees. I also admire this family for its awesomely low expenses. (When it comes to bond funds, for example, low expenses are just about the name of the game.)
  
  
• The firm with such good customer service that when a caller is put on hold, a light on the ceiling goes on to make the rep hurry up.
  
  
• The only fund company in the industry that is owned by its own shareholders. So the profits that are normally siphoned off by the operating company revert to you. (That profit margin can add a full percentage point per year to your returns, which comes to a heck of a lot of money over the years.)
  
  
• Firms whose managers "eat their own cooking" — by putting all their retirement money right alongside yours, in their own funds. A manager in this category naturally acts in the best interest of shareholders — because he or she is one too.

As I stressed earlier, however, Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds will focus most sharply not on fund companies, but on individual fund managers — the people who will actually be running your money.

And that’s right up my alley — because, quite simply, no one else has the access to anywhere near as many of the greatest minds in investing. We talk — and confer — regularly. And I want to put you on that same inside track.

It’s a real treat to have this same kind of access to the brightest minds on Wall Street. And it’s undeniable that the people I talk with are brilliant. Unfortunately, they’re not always as gifted in expressing themselves clearly in anything resembling the English language. That’s where I come in, making sure that all their answers are specific and understandable — so you’ll know exactly how to turn that person’s knowledge into money for yourself.

Think of the advantage you’ll have by being at the front of Wall Street’s information line — and getting it all in terms you can use. You’ll hear from such mutual-fund titans as:

• Mario Gabelli, the iconoclastic value investor who has compiled a remarkable 30-year record of repeatedly beating the rest of Wall Street to the punch in the hunt for bargain stocks.
  
  
• Tom Marsico, who achieved national renown for his outstanding long-term record at the helm of various Janus funds. Now on his own, he has two funds — Marsico Focus and Marsico Growth — which have outperformed 93% and 95% of their peers, respectively, over the past three years.
  
  
• Susan Byrne, the Westwood Funds president whose stock-picking prowess led two of her funds to membership in Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds’ elite Rukeyser 100.

These are the sort of top pros you’ll meet each month in my newsletter. I regularly interview money masters of this ultra-elite class on my weekly TV program, and I count many of these fascinating people as my personal friends. This gives me an edge most investors just can’t get — an edge I’m willing to share with you each month in the pages of Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds. Because you’re the friend who will always come first there.

"I Like Your Focus on Consistent Managers, But What About Top-Ranked Funds? Will We Miss Out on Them?"

No. At least not the ones that matter. But then again, it doesn’t pay to chase after today’s hot fund du jour anyway.

Rather than joining the lemmings who rush into the #1 fund as soon as the rankings are released, we’re more interested in bringing you the funds that power ahead year after year, snowballing their assets into bigger and bigger gains for their shareholders. They may never be #1 in any one quarter or year, but over the long haul they’ll make you the most money by far.

In fact, the truly outstanding funds may never be ranked #1 at all. My old friend Peter Lynch, who guided Fidelity Magellan to the best overall record of all funds between 1980 and 1990, never once ranked higher than 16th in any one year. But when all was said and done, he had made more money for more shareholders than any other money manager in history.

You see, the key to developing real wealth is consistency. For several years running, Peter ranked in the top 20 out of thousands of funds. During these years, he steadily racked up 20% to 30% gains. When you compound that kind of performance for a few years, it’s easy to see why $10,000 invested in Magellan when Peter took over in 1977 became $155,000 when he retired in 1990.

This once again proves my point that people make mutual funds, not vice versa. In sailing regattas in which each racer has an identical boat, a few skilled sailors still win most of the races. People like Peter Lynch — who have reached the top of a profession dominated by intense, competitive and intelligent individuals — are the skippers you want sailing your own financial vessel.

These people are accomplished… successful…powerful. If you watch my television show, you know the caliber of person I mean. The very same level of investment specialists will be advising you on your mutual funds. And they’ll be communicating privately — just for you — with total freedom.

I’m talking about people like:

• Robert Rodriguez, who has guided FPA Capital Fund to a 17.60% annualized gain for 10 full years.
  
  
• Edward Owens, who in the past 15 years at Vanguard Health Care Fund has given shareholders a 19.39% annualized return.
  
  
• Bill Miller, who in 22 years at the helm of Legg Mason Value Trust has led it to an annualized return of 16.83% a year.

Do You Realize How Much Money You Can Make With Returns Like These?

Robert Rodriguez in 10 years has returned shareholders $50,591 on each original $10,000 invested. In 15 years, Edward Owens has turned $10,000 into $142,273.

And for real consistency, how about Bill Miller, who in 22 years has showered $306,335 onto each fortunate investor starting with the same $10,000 sum in his fund?

Meanwhile, his benchmark, the S&P 500, returned just $184,299 over the same period. That’s a $122,036 bonus you can chalk up to one thing: superior management. That’s the kind of numbers I want us to rack up together using Louis Rukeyser’s Mutual Funds.

"So How Much Is All This Going to Cost?"

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. To introduce you to my mutual-fund letter, my publisher is offering lower-than-half-price subscriptions. You can sign up now for a one-year subscription for just $39 instead of the masthead rate of $96. (Buy those 40-cent dollars while you can!)

Right now, for just a few dollars a month, you can receive all the benefits of being an Introductory Subscriber. In fact, my goal is to make my newsletter better than free for you…I want it to make you substantially richer, leading you to gains that are many times your subscription cost.

Of course, your ultimate profit depends on how much you invest. But even a little improvement can go a long way. The difference between a 12% and 15% annual return on a $10,000 mutual-fund investment is $67,202 after 20 years. On $100,000, that’s an extra $672,020 in your pocket! Just for nudging up your returns by 3% a year! So please don’t miss this opportunity to push up your gains, even a little.

Please Let Me Hear From You Today

I urge you to join me as we meet the best money-management minds in the country together…and take advantage of the awesome wealth-building power of mutual funds — the way they were meant to be used.

But don’t delay. Every day that you invest without the help I can bring you is another day that your money might be stagnating in a fund with a flat future…or worse, be at serious risk in a fund in trouble.

And it’s one more day you’re missing out on the profits the truly superior mutual-fund managers are racking up for their shareholders.

So please join me today…and see for yourself why I’m convinced that well-informed mutual-fund investors will make an enormous amount of money in the coming years. Why not be part of that happy — and wealthy — group?

With the bullish best wishes of