There continues to be a lot of focus on the consequences of today’s low-rate environment. In such an environment, one of the most important things an investor can do is economize on the cost of the financial services they’re buying (translation: find lower expense ratio funds!).
Still, it never ceases to amaze me how much people continue to neglect the “silent killer” of long-term returns—high investment costs. Every now and then, I see articles that talk about the bite that investment costs can take out of a portfolio over time. But many times, these articles talk about how much of your “returns” an investment manager takes via fees. For example, if a fund charges a 1% fee and you anticipate a 5% gross return, it’s often observed that you’re giving up “20% of your return” (1% of the 5%) to costs. Jack Bogle likes to point out that the cost is dramatically higher when thought of as a percentage of after-inflation, after-tax returns: accounting for inflation of 2% and effective taxes of (say) 20% on the total return, your after-tax, “real” return is reduced to 2%, and a 1% fee is 50% of that!
