They use computer programs to adjust the investment to stay even with the index. As a result, while the average annual fee for a managed stock mutual fund is 0.89 percent, the average fee for an equity index fund is a much more reasonable 0.12 percent. Those numbers sure don’t sound like much. It’s only a 0.77 percent difference. Well, when it comes to investing expenses, remember a corny early 1960s love song: Little things mean a lot.
