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Fees are the vampires of the investing world. They can suck the life out of your returns if you're not careful. But a little diligence can help you pay lower fees in general, and identify the few times it might be prudent to pay a little more for a quality product.

The fee landscape for retail investors mostly is related to exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and variable annuities.

For all three investments, fees go to administrative and trading costs and the managers who buy and sell the securities in the funds. For mutual funds and variable annuities, there are also sales commissions and marketing and distribution fees.

ETFs in general are cheaper because they don't have the sales commissions or marketing and distribution fees that are associated with the other two investment vehicles, says John Faustino, chief product and strategy officer for fi360, a fiduciary education and technology company. But they also tend to be more formulaic and passively managed than mutual funds. Read More.