Costs
Costs are invisible by design, and invisible costs are never resisted
Investment charges are deducted rather than billed. Nothing leaves your account, so nothing triggers the part of you that notices…
Costs
Charges, spreads and the one variable in investing you can actually control.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Costs
The percentage that eats a third of your outcome
Charges compound against you exactly as returns compound for you, and unlike returns they are certain.
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Costs
Why a phone contract gets more scrutiny than a platform fee
People will spend an evening saving a small monthly amount on a subscription and years paying a larger one on an account they never…
Costs
Paying for reassurance is a purchase, so price it
A great deal of what investors buy is comfort. That is legitimate, provided you know what the comfort costs per year.
Costs
Trading is the price of your own restlessness
Every adjustment costs something, and the reason for most adjustments is the need to do something rather than the need to change…
Costs
Zero commission changed behaviour, not cost
Removing the visible price of a trade did not make trading free. It removed the friction that used to stop you.
Costs
Certain costs and uncertain returns get unequal attention
Investors spend their energy on the part of the equation nobody can control and ignore the part with a knowable answer.
Costs
The cost review nobody schedules
Nothing in an investment account will ever prompt you to check what you are paying. The prompt has to come from you.
Costs
Why nobody gets round to switching provider
The saving is clear, the forms are dull, and the task moves to next month indefinitely. This is a behaviour problem, not a…
Costs
The part of an adviser fee that is behavioural
The most defensible thing a good adviser does is stop clients acting on their worst instincts. Measuring that is genuinely hard.
Costs
The costs that never appear on a statement
Hesitation, uninvested cash and time spent out of the market are real expenses. None of them are itemised anywhere.
Costs
Expensive signals quality everywhere except here
We learn from everything else we buy that paying more gets you more. In funds the relationship has generally run the other way.