4 Best Mutual Funds at Vanguard Now

In the mutual fund industry, Vanguard founder Jack Bogle is a legend.  After college, he got a job at Wellington Management Company and quickly rose up the ranks, becoming the company’s chairman.  However, he was eventually fired because of a bad merger. But this turned out to be fortuitous since he started the mutual fund giant Vanguard in 1974.
His laser-like focus at Vanguard was on the interests on investors.  To this end, he developed low-cost mutual funds that focused on indexing.  Hey, why should investors spend high amounts on fees when many portfolio managers underperform the market?
Now, thanks to this legacy, Vanguard is a mutual fund investing powerhouse.  There are $1.4 trillion in assets, with 160 U.S. funds and 50 international funds.  And while many are strong, there are some that are standouts above the rest. Let’s take a look:

Vanguard International Growth (VWIGX)

Started in the early 1980s, the Vanguard International Growth Fund (MUTF: VWIGX) now has $18.8 billion in assets.  The portfolio is diversified across the world, with 11.58% in the Americas, 53.81% in Europe and 34.61% in Asia.  There is also 21.11% in emerging markets.
The Vanguard fund is composed of a variety of best-of-breed international money managers, from firms like Schroder Investment Management, Baillie Gifford and M&G Investment Management.   The general approach is to focus on high quality companies with strong growth prospects.
As should be no surprise, the expense ratio is only 0.49% and the turnover is 44%. Top holdings now include Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP).

Vanguard Small Cap Growth Index (VSGIX)

The MSCI U.S. Small Cap 1750 Index tracks the performance of a diverse set of small capitalization stocks in the US.  It is widely followed and a good barometer of the category.
If you want to invest based on this index, then a good mutual fund choice is the Vanguard Small Cap Growth Index Fund (MUTF: VSGIX), which has $8.8 billion in assets.  True, there has been volatility — which is to be expected.  Although, the index has a good amount of mid-cap stocks, which helps with the swings.
For the past three years, the average annual return was 10.33%. Top holdings include JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU), Informatica (NASDAQ: INFA)  and Brigham Exploration Company (NASDAQ: BEXP).

Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2012

President Obama made a speech where he announced a goal of cutting oil imports by a third over the next decade. He included a pledge to have federal agencies buy only alt-fuel vehicles by 2015 and a promise to expand U.S. oil exploration and production.
Transitioning half the cars and trucks in the U.S. to natural gas transportation over the next 5 to 10 years could reduce foreign oil imports by 5 million barrels every day.
So natural gas is an obvious play. Renewable/alternative fuels are other good choices.
Here are my four best picks that could make investors a bundle from  the President’s new policy:
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2012#1—
Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE)
The company owns and/or supplies more than 200 natural gas fueling stations across the U.S. and Canada. It serves over 320 fleet customers operating over 20,000 natural gas vehicles. The customers can use Clean Energy’s fuel stations to tank up their vehicles with compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Clean Energy Fuels also provides natural gas vehicle systems and conversions for taxis, limousines, vans, pick-up trucks, and shuttle buses through its BAF subsidiary in Texas. Clean Energy helps customers buy and finance natural gas vehicles and obtain government incentives.
The company buys CNG from local utilities and produces LNG at its two plants (in California and Texas) with a combined capacity of 260,000 gallons per day.
Clean Energy owns and operates an LNG liquefaction plant near Houston, Texas, which it calls the Pickens Plant, capable of producing up to 35 million gallons of LNG per year.
And investors who buy CLNE won’t be alone …
Founder and billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens owns a sizeable chunk of Clean Energy.
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2012 #2—
Westport Innovations (WPRT)
This company makes natural gas engines for forklifts, oilfield services engines, trucks and buses and automobiles. Its 50-50 joint venture Cummins Westport project builds natural gas vehicle engines for trucks and buses that could refill at the clean energy stations built by Clean Energy.
It made revenues of $154 million in the last year and isn’t close to profitability yet. But a concerted push toward natural-gas powered vehicles could change that.
WPRT is at the top of its 52-week range. So I’d wait for a pullback.
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2012 #3—
Talisman Energy (TLM)
Talisman had 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves last year. It has material positions in three world-class, liquids-heavy shale plays in North America: The Marcellus shale (Pennsylvania), Montney shale (British Columbia) and Utica shale (Quebec). It is also expanding its Eagle Ford shale properties, in a 50-50 joint venture with Statoil.
The company also signed two $1.05 billion deals with Sasol of South Africa. This partnership is sketching out plans for a new multibillion-dollar facility near Edmonton that could process as much as a billion cubic feet of natural gas a day into 96,000 barrels of refined products through the Fischer-Tropsch process.
Fischer-Tropsch works by using heat and chemical catalysts to break down a substance like natural gas into its molecular basics and then rebuild those molecules into something else — such as diesel.
Why do that?
A barrel of oil contains roughly six times the energy content of a thousand cubic feet of gas. Since 6 thousand cubic feet of gas is worth about $24 (U.S.), and one barrel of oil is worth about $100, there is a tremendous profit margin if you can convert one to the other cost-effectively.
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2012 #4—
PowerShares Wilderhill
Clean Energy Fund (PBW)
This is one of the largest alternative energy ETFs with over $500 million in assets. Large holdings include GT Solar, Yingli Green Energy, SunPower Corp., Trina Solar and more.