Investing Costs
Checklist for finding hidden costs in fund documents
A checklist for finding the costs a fund's headline fee can miss, including sales charges, redemption fees and trading costs, and where each one is disclosed in fund documents.
The collection
Investing Costs
The fees, trading costs, taxes and inflation that quietly change what an investment keeps, and how to find and read the cost information in fund documents.
Investing Costs
How different ways of paying for advice work
Advisers are paid through flat fees, hourly rates, percentage-of-assets fees or commissions. Each scales differently and creates different incentives worth asking about.
Investing Costs
How investment fees reduce long-term returns
A fee of one percent a year can take a large share of long-term growth through compounding. See a hypothetical example, where fees appear in statements and how to judge them.
Investing Costs
How taxes on investment income change returns
How taxes on dividends, interest and capital gains reduce what an investment keeps, and why the type of account and the length of time you hold both matter.
Investing Costs
Real returns: how inflation affects what you keep
How inflation reduces what an investment return can buy, how to calculate a real return from a nominal one and what to consider when comparing investments with different costs.
Investing Costs
Trading costs, spreads and commissions explained
Buying and selling carries costs beyond any listed fee, including commissions, bid-ask spreads and short-term taxes, plus how order types affect the price you get. Learn how frequent trading adds up.
Investing Costs
What an expense ratio measures in a fund
The expense ratio is the yearly percentage of a fund's assets that covers operating costs, deducted from the fund's returns. Learn what it includes, what it leaves out and where to find it.