Cost of investing

John Bogle said in his book, that an individual investing on his own incurs an average trading cost of 1.5% per year.

If he invests in a mutual fund, the total "all in" costs comes to 3% to 3.5% per year. This comprise of management fee, operating expenses, sales charges, brokerage commissions, spreads and market impact costs.

He advocates investing in an index fund, and holding it "forever". The cost reduces to less than 0.5% per annum.

The difference is very big, over a period of 10 or 20 years.

You can read his speeches in Bogle speeches