I was recently reviewing my retirement portfolio costs and noted how much lower the costs are on my index funds. More than 60% of my mutual funds are in index funds. My actively managed funds include the Vanguard 2025 Target and 2035 Target funds which also include index funds even though the funds themselves are considered to be actively managed. My average cost is .21% which is lower than the industry average of 1.27%. That means my returns are 1% higher just because of the low fees. That difference adds up over time. For example, if I were to calculate the future value of my $90,000 in retirement assets in 25 years using 8% it comes out to $231,208. However, if I get a 1% higher return the value in 25 years is $291,120, almost $60,000 more! The scenario assumes that I don’t add anymore money to the original $90,000 balance. Increasing my savings would of course make the difference even higher.
I am not going to get into the whole argument over which is better indexed or actively managed. I feel comfortable with where my money is invested and that is all that matters. If I were to visit a financial planner I would probably hear that I have a lot of overlap in my funds. Specifically, I own various amounts of Vanguard Mid-Cap Index in my IRA, Roth IRA, and my 401k. I plan to get some financial advice next year once my Vanguard fund total exceeds $100,000 which makes me eligible for a reduced cost ($250) financial plan that they normally charge $1,000 for.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Index fund vs. actively managed fund
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