Cost to invest in 1 fund vs many?

Question

If you have say 3000 to invest, then is it more costly (in terms of Fund fees) to spread it across many funds vs buying only 1 fund.

Assume no minimums for Funds and assume they have same Yield before expense and all funds in one fund family.

My question essentially is do my COSTS necessarily go up if I own 2 funds vs only 1 fund--assuming all other considerations are same.

Answer 1

Actually, there is not difference in costs assuming they are open ended funds. Closed end funds carry the cost of brokerage commissions to buy and sell so with those there would be a slight difference.

In general one is better off risk and reward wise owning several different funds with different investment philosophies. It tends to avoid specific risk.

Answer 2

No. 5% of $3000 is $150 period. So if Fund A is charging 2% & another .75% the total is 2.25%% you are still paying out 5%. Where you might want to focus is with a single Fund family, say, Vanguard or T.Row Price, Dodge & Cox or American & get a well balanced fund which exposes your money to a wide number of investments. Don't just stay with the S&P 500 or Small Caps, do International, Real Estate (except for the next 12 months), Domestic, Large Cap, Midcap, Treasuries & Corporate Bonds.

Read the following article & then spend a few weeks at this site before jumping in, but remember the Companies mentioned above.

Where you can also get ahead is by investing in ETF's (Exchanged Traded Funds). If you place all of your money in once your fine, but you'll surrender a trading fee each time by instead adding monthly. Read much but diversify & go with low fee Mutual Fund Companies & you'll watch your pile grow, by adding monthly to mutual finds & annually to ETFs.

Answer 3

Under "normal" circumstances there should be no difference.

Best bet though.... learn more about investing. Buy only low to average annual fee mutual funds with decent track records in their respective category.

Some decent fund no-load companies include;
Dodge and Cox
Vanguard
Fidelity
T. Rowe Price
Harbor
Artisan
and many more. Learn/Use an asset allocation to pick the best funds in the desired fund family. REMEMBER: One company may have great domestic funds but not so great international funds. Some may be better with bonds. Some may be better only with Large Caps.

Costs with any of these fund families will be the same (from the minimum investment allowed to the highest).