closer:

I am looking at a SmartMoney Fund Screen I clipped out of the Wall Street Journal some time ago. It lists no-load equity funds that ranked in the top 10% of their categories since inception. Dodge & Cox Balanced is not on the list. Those classified as balanced funds, in order of their annualized total return since inception, are Janus Balanced (JABAX), Value Line Income and Growth (VALIX), Fidelity Balanced (FBALX), and Mairs & Power Balanced (MAPOX). You might want to look at their recent performance in the thread that's tracking the PRWCX horserace in 2008.

Well those are all good funds, Closer, but according to M* growth of $10,000 for the last 10 years, none of them beat DODBX, although VALIX was close.  Of course it has a 1.06 ER so that would eliminate it in my book.

The growth of $10,000 is the only reasonable way for an investor to compare fund return history.  We are all in it for the dinero.  My eyeball estimates from the charts:

DODBX:....$24500
VALIX.........24000
FBALX....... 23000
JABAX........22000
MAPOX......20500

Frankly, that's close enough to for me to call them just about even.  None of them have a lower ER, although Fido's is the same.

So it comes down to the fund culture.  The whole deal about active management is trusting and believing in the management style.  Otherwise, index funds make a lot more sense.

Like Ben, I can't predict the future and I can't market time successfully (Unless I was to sell short ANYTHING Justin buys :0} 

So  if I switch out of DODBX into something else, how will I know that you'll be there to help me when it's time for me to switch again?

best,

Bill