But, the story explains, the margin would have been better still if it weren't for the average 1.4 percent of return the average mutual fund charges.

Australia received 5,571,720 war reparations, but the direct cost of the war to Australia had been 376,993,052, and, by the mid-1930s, repatriation pensions, war gratuities, interest and sinking fund charges were 831,280,947.

"Senator Cameron's 'slush fund' charges proved to be a boomerang which added considerably to my majority" observed Hayden after the election.

By comparison, the average stock mutual fund charges 1.47 percent of assets a year for management and other administrative fees.

You can buy a good S. & P. 500 index for 0.2 percent in operating costs, whereas the typical nonindex fund charges 1.5 percent - that's more than 7 times as much.

The average active mutual fund charges about 1.4 percent of your investment each year this charge is known as a fund's expense ratio while the average index fund costs 0.80 percent.

Vanguard, for example, the largest purveyor of index funds today, charges about one-tenth to one-fifth of what the typical actively managed fund charges for expenses.

The average fund charges about $14.50 per $1,000.

The higher the fees a fund charges, the better it must perform simply to break even.

The average annuity charges 2.11 percent of assets a year, according to Morningstar Inc., the Chicago financial researcher, while the average mutual fund charges about 1.36 percent.