FSEMX has an annual expense ratio of 0.1% which is very low. What that means
is that each month, the FSEMX will pay itself one-twelfth of 0.1% of
the total value of all
the shares owned by the shareholders in the mutual fund. If the fund has cash
on hand from its trading activities or dividends collected from companies
whose stock is owned by FSEMX or interest on bonds owned by FSEMX, the
money comes out of that, but if there is
no such pot (or the pot is not large enough), then the fund manager has the authority
to sell some shares of the stocks held by FSEMX so that the employees can be
paid, etc. If the total of cash generated by the trading and the dividend
collection in a given year is (say) 3% of the share value of all the outstanding mutual fund,
then only 2.9% will be paid out as dividend and capital gain distribution
income to the share holders, the remaining 0.1% already having been paid
to FSEMX management for operating expenses.
It is important to keep in mind that expenses are always paid even if
there are no profits, or even if there are losses that year so that
no dividends or capital gains distributions are made. You don't see
the expenses explicitly on any statement that you receive. If FSEMX
sells shares of stocks that it holds to pay the expenses, this reduces
the share value (NAV) of the mutual fund shares that you hold. So,
if your mutual fund account "lost" 20% in value that year because the
market was falling, and you got no dividend or capital gains distributions
either, remember that only 19.9% of that loss can be blamed on the
President or Congress or Wall Street or public-sector unions
or your neighbor's refusal to
ditch his old PC in favor of a new Mac, and the rest
(0.1%) has gone to FSEMX to pay for fees you agreed to when you
bought FSEMX shares.
If you invest directly in FSEMX through Fidelity's web site,
there is no sales charge, and you pay no expenses other than
the 0.1% annual expense ratio. There is a fee for selling
FSEMX shares after owning them only for a short time since
the fund wants to discourage short-term investors. Whatever
other fees finance.yahoo.com lists might be descriptive
of the uses that FSEMX puts its expense ratio income to
in its internal management,
but are not of any importance to the prudent investor in FSEMX
who will never encounter them or have to pay them.