It'll come as no surprise that - once again - you have a choice, but this one is all about saving money rather than an attitude to risk.

In a nutshell, it "costs" you money to buy into investment funds, in order for a skilled manager to look after and invest your money. 

There are two fees to watch out for: an "initial" charge to buy into the fund, roughly 5 per cent, and then what's known as an annual management charge (AMC) of about 1.5 per cent.

So your job is to keep these to an absolute minimum.

As a general rule, you'll pay hardly anything to buy into a tracker fund - usually no more than 1 per cent overall and often as little as 0.1 per cent - because of its simplicity to run and lack of need for fund manager skills.  However, pick a fund that invests your cash around the world or in risky companies that demand a lot of fund manager "skill" - in principle, at least - and the costs suddenly rocket.

Go direct to the specialist fund company and you can lose up to 5.5 per cent of your investment as an initial charge, as well as having to pay the annual 1.5 per cent.

If you don't want - or need - help from a financial adviser who will charge you either a fee or commission on top, your best bet to keep a lid on costs is to go via a discount "execution-only" broker or so-called fund "supermarket" (or online investment website).

Because they cut out the cost of expensive advice, both will rebate this upfront 5.5 per cent commission to you by putting part - if not all - of this cash back into your fund - in many cases, they will rebate part of the AMC to your fund, too.

In particular, you should consider using a fund supermarket if you intend to closely monitor your investments and are prepared to switch your cash around. Fund supermarkets - including fundsnetwork from Fidelity and Vantage from Hargreaves Lansdown - let you pick from a very broad range of investments and monitor them using one website.

Their real value, however, lies in the cheapness of moving your money: say your UK fund has been underperforming for nearly a year, you can switch all or part of the cash in it to another fund for as little as 0.25 per cent

All this does rather turn the received wisdom of 'cutting out the middle man' on its head; but if you do go direct via a fund manager, you truly will pay through the nose.

Although not everyone compares the cost of buying into a fund, it's definitely worthwhile. If a fund is very expensive to run and administer, you've got to ask yourself why. Unless it's delivering month after month of stonking growth, then it won't be worth paying high fees.

A very good - and simple - way to measure a fund's administration fees is to look not at the AMC but at the Total Expense Ratio (TER) instead. This includes fees for legal work, trustee documents, auditing, share custody and administration. The TER includes the AMC, and so can rise to as much as 3 per cent: this is the real indicator you want to be looking at - it's a much more reliable benchmark when comparing funds. And the lower the TER, the better and more competitive the cost management.

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