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If you think mutual fund performance is the whole story, watch out! You could make a very expensive mistake by not considering the costs of a mutual fund! The lower a fund's costs, the higher percentage of your fund's real return you receive. You can control what you pay to invest by selecting low cost mutual funds.

Mutual fund costs come in two flavors:

1) Shareholder Fees

You pay these fees directly out of your own pocket to purchase, redeem, or exchange shares. The following shareholder fees will appear in the 'Fee and Expenses' section of a mutual fund's prospectus:

Sales Charge on Purchases -- Also called a 'Load', this fee is expressed as a percentage of the dollars invested

Purchase Fee -- Usually replaces the sales charge / load. This fee appears as a flat dollar charge for making a purchase regardless of the investment amount

Sales Charge on Reinvested Dividends -' Similar to the 'Load' on purchases, this fee is expressed as a percentage of dollars reinvested

Redemption Fee -' Charged at the time of selling shares of the fund. Expressed as a percentage of the dollars invested or a flat dollar amount

Account Maintenance Fee -' A flat dollar amount charged if your account value falls under a specified minimum balance

2) Annual Operating Expenses

These expenses get deducted from the Fund's assets before the management firm calculates return numbers.

Management Fee -' This fee gets paid to the team that makes all the investment decisions. Out of this fee, the fund management pays for trading costs so you won't see commissions detailed in the expense section of the prospectus.

12b-1 Distribution Fee -' This fee covers the costs of advertising and selling the fund. These fees are 'ongoing', meaning they never go away for as long as you own the fund. They can have a significant negative impact on the cost of a fund.

Other Expenses -' This includes the cost of daily administration of the fund such as issuing annual reports, maintaining office space, etc.

How much you should expect to pay depends upon the mutual fund category. Each category has it's own average annual expense ratio. For instance , it costs more to run an international fund than a domestic. Bond funds cost less to run than equity funds. To find out the category's average expense ratio, go to Morningstar and view the report for the fund you're considering purchasing (simply input the fund's symbol in the 'Quote' box and hit "enter") once the report appears, go to the 'Fees and Expenses'. The category average expense ratio appears in the 'Actual Fees' section on the right.

All things being equal (i.e., risk, performance, etc.), you want to select mutual funds that have low expense ratios relative to other funds in the same category. You can compare the cost of various funds for free by using Vanguard's Cost Comparison tool or the Morningstar Fund Compare. If you have a membership at Morningstar, check out the Cost Analyzer found in the Morningstar Tools section (right side of the page).