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Maybe this should be an question at English Language Learners, but it concerns mutual fund investing; so I thought to try here first, but please migrate this if apt.

[Source:] The burgeoning world of mutual funds is rich with examples as well. Go with Heikko (of the notoriously volatile American Heritage Fund) and you will be well entertained, but likely not well compensated. Rumble with the "Tough Guys" (of the Kaufmann Fund) and fulfill your investment Rambo fantasies… and again, most likely, you will pay the piper on the bottom line. (A small personal confession: For years I've been mildly amused by Ralph Wanger's well-written Acorn Fund quarterly reports, and over the past decade I too have paid the price.)

1. I know the meaning of to pay the piper, but what's the bottom line here?

2. A lone individual lacks the power to manipulate mutual funds (ie to pay anyone, much less a piper, to change the fund as per the individual's desires); so why use this idiomatic expression?

Footnote: I encountered the website above while reading https://money.stackexchange.com/a/29286/10763.

Community
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To pay the piper is simply to pay all costs due, including those you didn't anticipate.

The bottom line (implicitly of a financial statement) is the fina summation of all gains and losses. They're just saying that there ate unavoidable costs which may make this a bad (or at least less-good) choice.

Yes, this is an English idiom question, not a financial terminology question.

keshlam
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Pay the piper refers to the story about the pied piper. He freed a village of a rat plague but took their children as payment. Thus paying the piper refers to a large and unexpected payment.

The bottom line refers to the line under a column of numbers under which the column total is given. Thus the bottom line means the final cost or profit after adding up all revenue and expenses.

Combine them together and you get something meaning an investment whose final yields will include some large and unexpected costs.

Eric
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