Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange
Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [expense-ratio]

64 questions
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Does the expense ratio of a fund-of-funds include the expense ratios of its holdings?

Suppose a mutual fund invests only in other mutual funds, instead of investing in stocks or bonds directly. Does the reported expense ratio of that fund include the expense ratios of the funds it holds, or is it an expense over and above those of…
Paul Kuliniewicz
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Why is the expense ratio of an index fund sometimes higher than its equivalent ETF?

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VTSMX)'s expense ratio is 0.14% whereas VTI, its equivalent ETF, has an expense ratio of 0.03%. Why is the expense ratio of an index fund sometimes higher than its equivalent ETF?
Franck Dernoncourt
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Do I need to own all the funds my target-date funds owns to mimic it?

I just calculated out that investing my Roth IRA in a Lifecycle fund will cost me about $65k more than investing directly in the underlying funds, effectively doubling the expense ratio. And the funds they choose aren't exactly low expense…
jldugger
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Should I care about expense ratios?

I've never been an investor before, but I recently came into some money. In my understanding, expense ratios for mutual funds and ETFs are typically incorporated into the yield or ticker price. If that's the case, should I care about expense…
shadowtalker
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Confused about different ETFs

I am trying to decide what ETFs to invest in (long term) and I see many options that are recommended online, by reliable finance websites, but make no sense to me (I will mainly invest in VOO, but I would like to try others, too). For example, many…
Alex Marshall
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Shifting money between mutual funds

In the last 5-7 years, I've gradually invested money in several mutual funds via my bank (USAA). These funds now make up about a third of my portfolio. Initially I had invested in these funds because it was very easy to do: I already had an…
BrenBarn
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How can one relatively easily show that low expense ratio funds outperform high expense ratio funds?

Almost everybody these days says that passively managed, low expense ratio funds outperform actively managed, high expense ratio funds. I believe it, and have been investing accordingly, but I would like to prove it to myself. This seems like it…
Craig W
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Tax implications of 401k regular rebalancing vs a retirement target fund

This question is in the context of securities held within a 401k. As I understand it, one of the advantages of a retirement target date fund (like Fidelity's FFFHX, which I am in 100%) is that the fund automatically adjusts its holdings to become…
Jeremy
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Tools to Cut Expense Ratios

An older (retired) relative asked for my help to assess their current investments in their IRA accounts. I'm not looking to give them investment advice (I'm not qualified and don't want that responsibility), but I would like to help them move from…
Phil Sandler
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Should we really be looking at the expense ratio while choosing funds?

While doing a bit of research on choosing mutual funds, I found that almost all the blog posts and web pages seem to suggest how harmful the expense ratio is, how much money we lose over time due to the expense ratio, etc. That naturally makes an…
sherlock
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What are these fees attached to mutual fund FSEMX?

Could somebody please explain these fees attached to FSEMX? Annual Report Expense Ratio (net) Prospectus Net Expense Ratio Prospectus Gross Expense Ratio Finance.yahoo.com indicates that they are each .10%. Does that mean that if I add them all…
Jim G.
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How do 401(k) mutual fund expense ratios work?

Simple question - how do expense ratios work? Is there a fee that is calculated regularly, and the amount is taken out of my account? Is it subtracted from the funds earnings? Context: My work has recently changed the 401k setup. They will now be…
MattMcA
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When a stock is replaced in an index, does the ETF incur a net loss?

Suppose I have invested in ETF VOO. This Vanguard ETF tracks the S&P 500. If a stock such as Goodyear (GT) that is contained in the S&P500 gets removed and replaced with another stock such as Bitcoin (BTC) - does VOO incur a net loss? If so, who…
Sridhar Sarnobat
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Do net returns on mutual funds include expense ratio?

I'm considering an actively managed bond fund (DODIX) versus an similar index fund (VBMFX). Both are high quality intermediate funds. The 10-year return of DODIX (exp ratio 0.43%) is 0.86% higher than VBMFX (exp ratio 0.22%). When financial research…
Chirag Patel
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What is cheaper annually -- buying shares in a Vanguard index fund or buying shares of an ETF?

I’m having some difficulty figuring out which route would minimize the annual fees I pay. Vanguard offers an index fund that tracks the S&P 500 with an expense ratio of 0.25%. Then, there’s this app, Robin Hood, that would allow be to buy shares…
Dave
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