How cheap can investing be?
For retail investors, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) mark a significant shift in finance. Since their introduction in the 1990s, ETFs have eliminated the need for costly fund managers and saved trillions with low fees.
The first American ETF, SPY, had an annual fee of just 0.09%. VOO launched in 2010 with even lower fees at 0.03%. However, new American ETFs now feature fees only 0.2% points below pricier mutual funds — down from a gap of 0.7% points in 2014, according to Morningstar. However, fees on new ETFs are increasing; many established recently charge at least 0.5%.
Source: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/02/26/how-cheap-can-investing-get
