Contrary to what you may have heard or even believe to be true, simply saving as much money as you can is not the most important thing when it comes to ensuring that you’ll have a financially successful retirement. Rather, your attention should be on the actual arrangement of your underlying investments, and the fees – both explicit and hidden – associated with them.
That is not to say that the savings part is inconsequential, by any measure. But if you’re pouring your contributions into some lousy funds and/or are paying ridiculously high amounts in unnecessary fees – whether you know it or not – no amount of savings will ever change that reality. Even if you end up reaching your intended target, how would you feel to discover after the fact that you wasted thousands of dollars in unwarranted fees along the way?
Consider this hypothetical example involving a $100,000 investment earning 8 percent/year interest over 20 years. Your money would grow to $466,096 at the end of those 20 years. Now here’s the question: How much would you have at the end of the same 20 years if you were paying a 2.5 percent annual fee? Would you believe the answer is only $291,776? Yes, the fees alone would have eaten up a whopping $174,320 (a little over 39 percent) out of your $446,096 total. May I therefore suggest that instead of simply focusing on saving as much money as you possibly can, you first make sure that you will not wind up wasting your hard-earned money on unnecessary fees you may not even be aware of, or in substandard, inefficient investments.
The sad truth is that many so-called financial advisors pay little to no attention to these critical issues, either because these details demand a deeper level of probing or these advisors simply don’t understand how crucial they are. You be the judge on that one.
So are you really getting the best bang for your tireless efforts and money? Could you be paying way more than you know – or think?
If you would like an independent analysis of your portfolio to help you verify and gain a bird’s eye view into what’s really going on inside your portfolio, simply call us at 877.656.9111 or schedule your complimentary session here.