Do you shop around when buying stuff? Do you drive to a different gas station to fill up to save a few cents? At what price does it make a difference to shop around for you?

Ill be the first to admit, I rarely shop around. For most things, its just not worth it to me. For example, gas I always go to whats convenient for me, not necessarily the cheapest. Even if I save $0.10 per gallon, to fill my tank, thats only $1.40. Simply not worth it. The same is true for groceries I always go to the same place, I dont look at sales, and I never coupon.

But when it comes to investing, I DO shop around. I shop around to find the lowest price mutual fund or ETF. What am I talking about? FEES. The reason is simple: fees can add up to $10,000 or more and thats real money thats worth shopping around for.

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The Same 500 Stocks, Different Fees

Mutual fund and ETF fees irk me. They irk me because they are a necessary evil. I get it it costs money to run a fund. You have to buy and sell the stocks, pay the advisors, pay for insurance, and more. But whats silly is that you can have the same fund, with the same 500 stocks, and charge so many different prices crazy!

A simple example is the S&P 500 mutual funds and ETFs. The S&P 500 is a list of 500 stocks created by Standard and Poors. Every S&P 500 mutual fund owns the same 500 stocks in the same amount thats the point, to track the S&P 500.

So, youd think that all S&P500 funds are created equal? Well, youre very, very wrong.

Heres a breakdown of the fees on the top 5 biggest S&P 500 funds:

1. SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) 0.11%
2. iShares Core S&P 500 (IVV) 0.07%
3. Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO) 0.05%
4. Schwab S&P 500 Index (SWPPX) 0.09%
5. Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX) 0.17%

As you can see, the most popular fund SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), actually charges over 2x as much as the Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO). Thats crazy, because its the same 500 stocks held in the same amount!

Why Fees Matter

Heres why it matters though. That difference of 0.06% compounds the same amount that your portfolio grows the expense ratio is always a percentage of assets.

So, if you had $50,000 and were adding $5,000 per year to your portfolio (say your Roth IRA), over 30 years, your expenses alone would be:

• SPDR S&P500 (SPY) $26,451.55
• Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO) $12,110.01

Thats a difference in fees of $14,341.54.

Whats even more shocking that SPY is the most popular fund by almost 10x what VOO is  SPY is worth $217 billion while VOO is worth $27 billion. Think of all of the people paying double in fees simply because its the more popular fund, even though they own the same 500 stocks!

Finding Out Your Fees And Lowering Them

One of the easiest ways to track your fees is to use an online personal finance app like Personal Capital. This FREE tool links all of your investing accounts and tracks your fees with their 401k Fee Analyzer. It will let you know what youre paying in fees, so you can make smart decisions about changing your investments. And beyond that, it also keeps track of all of your investing accounts in one place for fee. If youre not signed up, check them out: Personal Capital .

Do you look at the expense ratio when investing? Have you considered what your fees are costing you?