The “All-in” fees you pay.
Fees reduce your returns. Our fees start at .75% through $7,500,000 and work down from there. In addition, we work to reduce the second level of fees you pay… on ETFs, mutual funds, and other financial “products” offered by the industry. Finally, there are transaction fees.
First, we do not buy financial “products”. The more something is a “product” the higher the fees and the further away you are from actual ownership of the underlying asset. In terms of mutual funds, both the internal management fees and the loss of tax control represent significant costs to you. We tend to move away from mutual funds if you currently own them.
We use individual securities and ETFs, with ETFs having been selected for very low fees and active tax management that eliminate capital gains distributions. Our soft target objective is that you are paying no more that .8%-.85% all in.
Speaking to transaction fees, we keep them as low as possible starting with lower overall activity over time. In addition, our host site Interactive Brokers has extremely low transaction costs and of which we get none. Finally, transfer fees and taxes on transactions cannot be avoided by anyone. Fortunately, they are de minimus.