Times are tight. We’re all looking for a bargain at the grocery store, on the car lot, at the mall and just about everywhere else. But why stop there? You can go bargain-hunting with exchange traded funds (ETFs), too.

If you take $500,000 and invested this money into a low-cost index fund or an index ETF, with an annual cost of 0.35% for an expense ratio, fund expenses over 20 years would be $36,188. Ron DeLegge for ETF Guide shows us that a mutual fund would incur much more in expenses, with brokerage costs, management fees, sales loads and taxes, totaling up to $300,000.

Here are five ETFs that are from the five key fund categories, with the lowest costs:

• iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust (GSG): The expense ratio is 0.75% and includes areas such as energy,  industrial metals, agriculture, livestock and precious metals.
• SPDR’s nine sector ETFs: All nine of the specific sector focused Spiders are 0.65%. Financials (XLF) and Health Care (XLV) are a few. SPDR lowered their fees recently.
• Vanguard Total Bond Market (BND): Comes with much lower fees than a bond fund at 0.11%.
• Vanguard Emerging Markets (VWO): With an expense ratio of 0.25%, need we say more?
• Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI): A good, low-cost, U.S. stock market fund, this ETF covers the range of asset classes.

Low fees are a great sign of some healthy competition in the ETF industry. As ETFs grow in popularity, this is probably something we’ll be seeing a lot more of. It all serves to benefit the investor.

Tags: BND, Bond ETFs, Commodity ETFs, Emerging Markets, Financial, GSG, Health Care, Sector ETFs, VTI, VWO, XLF, XLV