Fees and taxes (not to mention underperformance) have been crushing the long-term investment results of most Americans. In fact, the actual average result of individual investors in this country in the 20 years ending 2011 has been closer to 2%. In real dollars (after inflation) purchasing power has been lost! It’s a scandalous state of affairs relative to the 7.8% delivered by the market index.11 Buffett and others have been sounding this alarm for decades, but these practices continue.
