Comments on: Annual Fee?! http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2004/09/29/annual-fee/ A premiere personal finance blog, established 2003. Within, Flexo discusses his own experiences with money, and he and other authors comment on a wide range of personal finance topics. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:42:00 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Flexo http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2004/09/29/annual-fee/#comment-43 Flexo Thu, 30 Sep 2004 23:04:20 +0000 http://wp.consumerismcommentary.com/?p=97#comment-43 This is exactly my point of view, as well. The investment from AIVSX came originally as a UGMA from my father, originally about ten years ago. For a few months, I was putting money into this investment once a month... until I realized I was paying a 5.25% premium. So I no longer invest in that fund. I just want it to sit somewhere where it's not going to accumulate annual inactivity fees, and my active investing will probably be in VFINX. My Roth IRA is in TCEIX with TIAA-Cref, but that's limited to $3,000 this year and $3,500 next year. This is exactly my point of view, as well. The investment from AIVSX came originally as a UGMA from my father, originally about ten years ago. For a few months, I was putting money into this investment once a month… until I realized I was paying a 5.25% premium. So I no longer invest in that fund. I just want it to sit somewhere where it’s not going to accumulate annual inactivity fees, and my active investing will probably be in VFINX. My Roth IRA is in TCEIX with TIAA-Cref, but that’s limited to $3,000 this year and $3,500 next year.

]]> By: Doug http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2004/09/29/annual-fee/#comment-42 Doug Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:33:57 +0000 http://wp.consumerismcommentary.com/?p=97#comment-42 Don't pay load fees. Don't pay load fees. Don't pay load fees. Write 100 times "I will not buy load mutual funds." Load funds underperform no-load funds by roughly the amount of the load. On the average. But of course, your investments will never be average! Better yet, go passive, and invest using index funds, whose performance, on the average, is better than the actively-managed funds by -- you guessed it -- the amount of the difference in the expense ratio, and better than about 84 percent of the actively managed funds at any given time. Don't be an investing Girlie-Man! Read Burton Malkiel's classic book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=as2&path=ASIN/0393325350&tag=consumerismco-20&camp=1789&creative=9325" rel="nofollow">A Random Walk Down Wall Street</a>. Don’t pay load fees. Don’t pay load fees. Don’t pay load fees. Write 100 times “I will not buy load mutual funds.”

Load funds underperform no-load funds by roughly the amount of the load. On the average. But of course, your investments will never be average!

Better yet, go passive, and invest using index funds, whose performance, on the average, is better than the actively-managed funds by — you guessed it — the amount of the difference in the expense ratio, and better than about 84 percent of the actively managed funds at any given time. Don’t be an investing Girlie-Man!

Read Burton Malkiel’s classic book A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

]]>