Discussing “No Free Lunch” in Finance

Whenever a company offers something at no charge, that means the price is hidden and out of sight. Investors considering the plethora of new fund and investing service options that purport to be “free” or have no cost should be aware: there is no free lunch.

Josh and I review a prior post on this in great detail.

The cost may be hidden in a myriad of ways. Corporations are for-profit entities and they should charge for the services they provide. But sometimes they charge investors in a hidden or non-obvious way. In today’s discussion, we talk Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Wealthfront, Betterment, E-Trade and more.

 

 

 

Previously:

Cheap is Great, But Beware of Free (Bloomberg, October 17, 2018)

Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch . . . (Washington Post, October 24, 2015)

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