A 1% annual fee sounds trivial. Over thirty years it can eat a quarter or more of your final balance, because the fee compounds against you exactly the way returns compound for you. The expense ratio is one of the very few numbers in investing you can know in advance with certainty.
Check yourself
A 1% annual fee over 30 years is…
Negligible
A large share of your final balance correct
Only relevant for big accounts
It is charged on the whole balance every year, including on the growth the earlier fees already reduced.
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This term has a full interactive lesson in Wick — the chart, the pattern to tap,
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