Investing Rule #1 – Get the Parasites Off Your Portfolio!
By Jim Luckett, Ph.D., Economics
It amazes me that people will clip coupons to save 35 cents on a roll of toilet paper and then waste hundreds or even thousands of dollars on fees and commissions when they invest. Why? Could be:
(a) they don’t see these costs, and/or
(b) they believe the myth that you get what you pay for (not true in investing) and/or
(c) they see the fee but since it’s expressed as a tiny percentage like 1.5% they think it’s trivial.
Look for the fees: Before you buy a mutual fund, for example, find out the “load” and the annual operating expense. These have tobe prominently disclosed. The load is a sales charge. It should be zero (see next paragraph), but often it is not. The load may take a slice of your money going into the fund, or a slice when you