With most funds you have to pay some management fees and trading fees. Even with the so called no-load funds, there is often a yearly management fee.

The management fee varies from fund to fund, but mostly it can be from a couple of percentages and upwards.

By being a smart investor you should try to avoid these fees the best you can. When you pay 1-4 percent in yearly management fees you are cutting into your potential profit.

You can avoid these fees very easily by being your own fund manager. That is not as difficult as it may sound. Almost all funds publish what stocks they are invested in. Some funds are largely invested in 5-10 big stocks. Today online trading is very cheap, and some trading firms let you get 35 or more trades free when you open an account.

The point is that it is very easy to mimic the performance of the fund by looking into what stocks they are invested in, and then buying those stock yourself. Then you will not need to pay any of those ridiculous fees.