What’s an Expense Ratio?

What are expense ratios?

What is the actual definition of an expense ratio? Here’s how Google defines it:

What does that mean for me as an investor?

This percentage is taken back by the fund as a compensation for running the fund. It covers operations and management fees. Motley Fool points out that this money comes out of your return. Another interesting point that the Fool.com site brought up:

Because the average large-cap value fund charges 1.17% more than the index, it has to outperform by at least that much to create value for investors — and more (maybe a lot more) if sales charges are involved. That’s a high hurdle for fund managers, many of whom trip and injure their clients’ portfolios in the process.

What’s a good expense ratio to look for?

In generally it appears that lower is better, but you have to factor it the performance of your fund. After all what good is a lower expense ratio if your fund does poorly?

Where can I find out more information on mutual funds and investing?

There are a lot of sites that have financial information. Try exploring and seeing which appeals to you personally. I recommend these:

• Yahoo Personal Finance’s Main Page
• Vanguard’s Planning and Education Section
• Fool.com Retirement Section
• Ramit Sethi has a great article warning against expensive funds versus index funds.
• J.D. offers information on IRAs.
• Pinyo gives his initial investment mistakes and how to avoid them.

Photo Credit:  Aaron Edwards

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