As we approach Black Friday it is worth remembering that if we look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.

When it comes to investment fees that maxim is worth its weight in gold.

Each pound of fees is a pound off your return. The opposite is also true. Each pound of fees saved is a pound left on your investment return.  And as the time ticks away (as it tends to do), those fee savings will add up over time (due to the magic* of compounding).

*It’s not magic, just maths.

So it was great news when Vanguard announced last month it was cutting its fees for a number of investments in our portfolios:

Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund (reduced 0.04%)
Global Small-Cap Index Fund (reduced 0.09%)
Global Corporate Bond Index Fund (reduced 0.07%)
Global Short-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund (reduced 0.07%)
FTSE Developed World ex-U.K. Equity Index Fund (reduced 0.01%)
FTSE U.K. All Share Index Unit Trust (reduced 0.02%)

This is something Vanguard have repeatedly done over the last 10 years. In fact the average cost of their funds has fallen from 0.34% per annum to 0.20% per annum over the past decade or so.

Vanguard are a big force in the global markets. They are massive. They invented index investing in 1975. Since then they have grown into a company with £4.7 trillion global assets under management. Over 30 million people have been clients. When Vanguard make a change the investment world sit up and pay attention.

There is a close link between fund costs and fund performance. You can’t control investment returns but you can control fees. The more you pay in fees, the lower your potential returns.

So lower charges are on the way and that’s got to be good news as we head towards Black Friday.