The point I was trying to make is that mutual funds rarely perform consistently across the years. There's been a mass amount of research done on this and the best source I can recommend is Contrarian Investment Strategic by David Dreman. If you link to the article I mentioned that I wrote about a year ago, I explained why mutual funds rarely do well. In the book, he DOES recommend how to find a good mutual fund, but they are few and rare.

Even the best performing funds very often flat or go negative in subsequent years due to reasons mentioned in my book/article. I only offered ETFs as one alternative, but frankly, I would stay away from mutual funds fully and invest in actual stocks instead. So, I do agree that if all things were equal the cheaper would be the better investment, but unfortunately, I don't believe they are.

There are advantages and disadvantages for both types of investments. For investors who are starting out and making regular contributions, a low cost mutual fund such as TD e-Series (MER of 0.31-0.48%), may cost less than paying a commission every time to buy a similar ETF.

What it ultimately boils down to is cost. All things being equal (i.e. funds that track the same index for example XIC vs TD900), the ETF or mutual fund that costs less will be more beneficial for the investor. Since the value of each investor's assets and contribution schedule varies, the commission costs will be different, as will be the costs incurred through MERs. Hence, each situation will be different. In other words, it is difficult to say which type of investment is better as it will vary from investor to investor.

At some point, the MER savings will outweigh the commission costs, and purchasing ETFs will cost less. This can be measured by total commission paid vs. the savings in MER difference.

Here is a comment from another article which shows how to calculate the break even point.

"For all those looking for a simple equation for how much money is needed to flip from one fund to another (or fund to ETF , etc.) from a higher MER to a lower MER based on covering your commission costs in one year of savings, well here it is:

Minimum amount needed = (Commission charged to sell higher MER($) + commission charged to buy lower MER ($))/(Higher MER% – Lower MER%)

Basically it is the total commssion cost in $ divided by the difference in MER%.

Enjoy,

Ed"

http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/switching-from-...

If investors aren't convinced, they will flee the traditional safe havens of government debt, raising yields, possibly pushing governments such as that of Britain and the US over the edge with their ability to repay their debt. Using these two countries as an example, they already have MASSIVE debt payments to make, which isn't going to change any time soon. They don't have much room for an increase in government bond yields.

I don't think this crisis has fully been resolved yet. We may get through it, but it is not a certainty at this point.