What is your overall Expense Ratio (ER) on your portfolio?

[Like2Plan]

Per Vanguard: Expense Ratio: A mutual fund's annual operating expenses, expressed as a percentage of the fund's average net assets. It's calculated annually and removed from the fund's earnings before they're distributed to investors, directly reducing investors' returns.

I thought this was a great piece done by Frontline a few years ago:
The Retirement Gamble

We discussed this a bit here on this board a couple years ago

http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/general-discussion/80557-frontline-retirement-gamble.html

So, have ERs gotten any better for your funds?
Vanguard lowered the ER on a couple of target funds DH and I are invested in and DH's 401k dropped the ER on a couple of funds. My 401k increased a little bit.

Doing a snapshot across our portfolio, our overall ER is .076 .

[disneysteve]

I honestly don't have the slightest idea what the overall average ER of our portfolio is.

I do know that several of our funds have lowered the ER over the years. Just last week, we got notices that the ERs of numerous funds in our 401k plan were lowered. Over time, we've also had Vanguard holdings converted from Investor shares to Admiral shares once our balances reached the minimums so that came along with lower ERs.

[rennigade]

My two largest accounts...401k and rollover have ER of .045. Roth IRA is at a .16%. The rest are with vanguard and fairly low.

edit: I looked at each account...im around .13%

[MonkeyMama]

0.08%

This has definitely gone down as we become eligible for admiral shares and as Vanguard lowers its expenses.

[Like2Plan]

I like this reference:

Boglehead Expense Ratio wiki

Towards the bottom of the page there is a Blended Expense Ratio.
The reason I like it is because it gives a dollar figure for the overall Expense. For me anyway, (ER) sometimes a little nebulous--it's nice to see an actual cost.

My goal for this year is to see if I can improve our blended expense ratio. (We'll find out if I'm too lazy to make a lazy portfolio. )

[97guns]

.014% on my RE fund, never knew it until I calculated it now

.01% on my entire portfolio

[AJ444]

.06

Everything we have invested is in Vanguard Mutual funds or my wife's TSP.

Vanguard did lower my Admiral International Stock and Admiral Muni bond fund last year.

[Outdoorsygal]

0.05- Vanguard S&P 500 Admiral
0.20- Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Admiral
—
0.25% (50/50 each)

BUT…we are charged a set 1% on all assets also so about 1.1%.


Personal Rate of Return- 2.83% last month.
I just started last month so that is the only stat avail.

.

[disneysteve]

we are charged a set 1% on all assets

Why? Vanguard doesn't charge any management fees beyond the ERs.

[Outdoorsygal]

Why? Vanguard doesn't charge any management fees beyond the ERs.

I believe this is a typical fee of 401k's thru your employer.
I've heard Apple employees are charged a quarter of a percent

[Like2Plan]

I believe this is a typical fee of 401k's thru your employer.
I've heard Apple employees are charged a quarter of a percent

I'm wondering what your plan's Brightscope rating is.

(Here is a link to a recent disccusion: Link to thread about Brightscope Ratings )

The ER for your investments are pretty good, but that 1% is pretty high. Do you work for a really small company?

[rennigade]

How are people calculating the exact expense ratio?

Heres a scenario...(these arent my amounts, just random numbers)

$200k 401k...ER .065
$100k Roth IRA...ER .15
$50k taxable...ER .025

Whats the real expense ratio? Its not as simple as just adding up these 3 ER's then dividing by 3 since the dollar amounts are different. Maybe its very easy but my math is really sucking right now...if someone knows the answer or how to find it.

[Like2Plan]

How are people calculating the exact expense ratio?

Heres a scenario...(these arent my amounts, just random numbers)

$200k 401k...ER .065
$100k Roth IRA...ER .15
$50k taxable...ER .025

Whats the real expense ratio? Its not as simple as just adding up these 3 ER's then dividing by 3 since the dollar amounts are different. Maybe its very easy but my math is really sucking right now...if someone knows the answer or how to find it.

Scroll down towards the bottom of this link https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Expense_ratios where it says, "Blended expense ratio

To compute a blended expense ratio across a portfolio, compute the expenses for each fund, sum the expenses, and then divide that sum by your total balance, as shown below: ":


(There is also an example in an excel spreadsheet)

[rennigade]

Gotta love bogleheads.

My real actual ER across all accounts is: .089%

Least its lower than what I thought. I may need to update my excel spreadsheet to include expense ratios. Kind of nice to see exactly how much you're paying in expenses for each fund and overall.

[rennigade]

Ok...so I crunched the numbers on my account and wifes account. This is the interesting part...and something that gets overlooked so often.

These are numbers taken from Jan 1, 2017. My investment accounts (401k, roth ira, taxable) equate to $380,124. I paid $350.46 in expenses. My wifes investment accounts from the same date equate to $183,977.42. She pays $370.49 in expenses. I have $196,146.58 more in investments than she does...yet I paid $20.03 less in expenses than she does.

She has one account thats messing up her expenses. Its $15,500 and the ER is 1.4%.

This is probably one of the more useful and informative threads started in a long time. I cant imagine many people actually calculate how much they're paying in expenses and their overall ER.

This is also useful for those who want to or already have a financial advisor. If they're taking 1%-2% right off the top...its really easy to see how much you're losing right off the bat. Financial advisors should be required to compute these numbers and show them to their clients. Imagine having a discussion with a FA and they tell you..."this year its going to cost you $10,000 for me to invest your money!"

If we had a FA and their fees were 1.5% we'd be paying a little over $8500 with the money we currently have...and thats only with $576,000 in investments. Imagine once you get up to 1million+.

If this isnt a wake up call for those seeking a FA I dont know what is. Do your homework, stick to a simple investing approach like the 3 fund approach...invest in low cost funds...save yourself many thousands a year.