Investing is one of the most effective ways to grow your wealth over time. However, it’s important to understand the impact of investment fees on your returns. Even small differences in fees can add up to a significant amount over time, which can impact your ability to achieve your financial goals.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the potential cost of paying a 2% fee annually on an investment growing at 7% annually over 20 years. We’ll walk through a specific example to demonstrate the impact of fees on investment growth, and provide strategies for reducing investment fees.
The impact of investment fees is often overlooked, but can have a significant effect on your returns. Even seemingly small differences in fees can add up to thousands of dollars over time. Understanding the impact of investment fees can help you make informed decisions about where to invest your money and how to minimize fees.
Explanation of investment fees
Investment fees are charges that are incurred when you invest your money. These fees can be charged in various ways, such as a percentage of assets under management, a flat fee, or a fee per transaction. Investment fees can be charged by various parties, including investment managers, brokers, and financial advisors.
How fees impact investment growth over time
Fees can impact investment growth in two ways: they reduce the amount of money that is invested, and they reduce the returns on that investment. When you pay a fee, that money is no longer invested and is instead paid to the person or company charging the fee. This reduces the amount of money that can grow over time. Additionally, fees can reduce the returns on your investment.
The significance of even small differences in fees
The impact of fees is often underestimated, but it’s important to understand the true cost of investing. By understanding the impact of fees, you can make informed decisions about where to invest your money and how to minimize fees. In the next section, we’ll explore a specific scenario to demonstrate the impact of fees on investment growth.
Assume you invest $100,000 in an investment that grows at 7% annually over 20 years. However, you pay a 2% fee annually, which is subtracted from your investment before the growth rate is applied.
First, let’s calculate the value of the investment after 20 years without fees.
$100,000 x (1 + 7%)^20 = $386,968.67
Now, let’s calculate the value of the investment after 20 years with a 2% fee annually.
$100,000 x (1 + 5%)^20 = $265,329.14
The potential cost of paying the 2% fee annually over 20 years is the difference between the two amounts:
$386,968.67 – $265,329.14 = $121,639.53
In this scenario, paying a 2% fee annually instead of earning a 7% annual return resulted in a potential cost of $121,639.53 over 20 years. The total return is therefore:
$265,329.14 – $100,000 = $165,329.14
Therefore, the percentage of the amount paid in fees compared to the total return is:
($121,639.53 / $165,329.14) x 100% = 73.65%
To further illustrate the impact of fees on investment growth, let’s take a look at a visual representation of the scenario.
The graph shows the growth of the investment over time with and without fees. The blue line represents the growth of the investment without fees, while the orange line represents the growth of the investment with a 2% fee annually. As you can see, the impact of fees becomes more significant over time, with the gap between the two lines growing wider.
Fortunately, there are several strategies you can use to reduce investment fees and maximize your returns.
Investment fees are an important consideration when investing your money. Even seemingly small differences in fees can add up to a significant amount over time, impacting your ability to achieve your financial goals.
We learned that investment fees can impact investment growth by reducing the amount of money that is invested and reducing the returns on that investment.
Investing is a powerful tool for growing your wealth, but it’s important to be informed and proactive about managing investment fees. By understanding the impact of fees and implementing strategies to reduce them, you can achieve long-term investment success and achieve your financial goals.
One way to do this is to take an active role in your investment management. Zen Trading Strategies provides various tools that you can use such as our TradingView Strategies and Indicators, Telegram Signals for Stocks, Crypto and Forex, and our Masters Course in Automated Algorithmic Trading.
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