However you handle your investments, make sure you know the cost of trading before a trade is executed. If you find that your broker is charging more than others but you like him or her, ask if commissions can be lowered. Pa. But when you look at fund fees as a percentage of your investment return and consider how they affect the value of your portfolio over time, they are by no means inconsequential. Consider two investors whom we'll call Jane and John. But over time, pulling that much out each and every year takes a huge toll on investors' pocketbooks.
All funds charge annual management fees.
A load is a sales charge that is deducted either from your initial investment when you buy or from your proceeds when you sell, and is generally used to compensate the broker selling the fund. 1 fee is similar in purpose to a load. These are marketing fees, which pay for fund sales representatives and advertising. But over long periods they're anything but, as John's case clearly illustrated above. Finally, a fund's management fee, also automatically deducted, pays the investment advisors that pick and manage investments for the fund.