Investing Demystified, 2nd Edition

Chapter 11

Expenses

There are too few people from the world of finance that are interested in emphasising the importance of low fees to investors. They are, after all, the ones making money from those same fees. I have nothing to sell you, other than the book you have already bought (and I’m giving my profits from the book to charity).

Fees are always important in finance, but even more so for the rational investor. Since we don’t think we’ll be able to outperform the market, we are not asking anyone to be particularly clever about investing. We just want someone to replicate the market. As a result, we can expect to pay very little for it. It’s worth repeating a lesson from earlier (see Figure 11.1).

Inertia is a powerful force. It either ...