Investment Fees Can Take A HUGE Bite Out Of Your Returns
Everyone likes a good return on their investments. However, you should know that your real return isn't the same as your nominal return because the fees haven't been deducted. If you aren't careful, you could lose a lot of your investment income because of those fees.
Beware Management Fees
Investment funds are very convenient. Unfortunately, you can expect to pay for that convenience in the form of management fees, which are paid to the people handling the investment process for you as well as for their other clients.
Beware Transaction Fees
If you choose to invest on your own, you can expect to pay transaction fees. This is one of the reasons that day trading is so high-risk. The returns on such transactions tend to be razor-thin. Transaction fees make them even thinner. As a result, it is very easy for people to lose money when they make the wrong trade.
Consider Long-Term Investing On Your Own
You can minimize both of these costs by making long-term investments on your own. After all, you won't be paying management fees because you will be doing your own investing. Similarly, you won't be paying a lot of transaction fees because you will be buying and holding. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that long-term investing on your own is the best choice. Paying money in exchange for extra convenience is perfectly fine so long as you understand exactly what you are getting into.