They keep fees low
The year 1995 was very good for the S&P 500 — it returned 37.2 percent to investors. Other good years included 1975 (37 percent) and 2013 (31.15 percent). How about 1974 and 2008? Not so much. The market crashed each of those years, ending them down 25.9 percent and down 36.55 percent, respectively.
While you can’t control how the market performs in any given year, you can keep your expenses low at all times. Choosing passively managed mutual funds can help trim your expenses dramatically, as we report in “Warren Buffett’s Sane and Simple Retirement Investing Plan.”
