# The incomprehensible obsession with TER (Total Expense Ratios) - is it justified? **URL:** \ **Category:** Investing / Portfolios\ **Created:** [May 5, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/the-incomprehensible-obsession-with-ter-total-expense-ratios-is-it-justified/2123 "2019-05-05T00:41:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![San\_Francisco](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@San\_Francisco](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/the-incomprehensible-obsession-with-ter-total-expense-ratios-is-it-justified/2123/5 "2019-05-05T13:18:59Z")
> [@Strabor](#): > > the tax inefficiencies of European ETF on the S&P500. Swapper funds do have a tax advantage there and can thus pass on part of this advantage That was part of why I started this thread. I’ve read a lot about tax advantages and TER, and lately began to feel as if there was sort of a consensus on this forum about preferring low-TER funds and US-domiciled funds over Irish ones. Also swap funds seemed to get a bad reputation here (fairly recently been referred to as [swap-based crap](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/us-etfs-vt-for-instance-not-available-anymore-in-switzerland/1648/84).) > [@bamboo](#): > > TER is important as it is a simple aspect you can optimize in an investment. A lot of small investors pay more than 1% and frequently up to 2% of TER and here it is a point to optimize. I fully agree. Though that doesn’t really seem to be point of contention in this community, does it? 😉 Instead, isn’t a great share of discussion taking place here (and I just reaffirmed this to me by skimming through recent threads) exactly about that? Optimizing for these elusive few basic points? Like the 15% residual withholding tax on a dividend yield of slightly less than 2% on the S&P 500 index… --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/the-incomprehensible-obsession-with-ter-total-expense-ratios-is-it-justified/2123)._