A nurse in my program ran a calculation and found $400,000 she hadn't known she was losing. She had been saving consistently for two decades. She followed standard advice. She stayed in the accounts her financial institution recommended. She hadn't done anything wrong.

She just had never been shown what her fees were actually doing to her money.

I'm Angel Mathis, nurse practitioner (MN, MPH, ARNP, RN, FNP-Bc). I teach nurses how to fund their future with small portions of their paycheck so they can work less if they want to. I paid off $200,000 in debt and made nursing work optional in six years. And before I got serious about learning to invest on my own, I lost $357,000 to fees I wasn't tracking either. So I understand exactly how this happens — and why so few nurses catch it.

Why Nurses Don't See the Fees on Their Accounts

Investment fees are almost never listed as a dollar amount on your statement. They are listed as a percentage. They look like fractions, and fractions are designed to feel small.

Two percent. Three percent. It doesn’t sound like a big deal.

The nurse I mentioned above was in segregated funds–a common investment vehicle in Canada. Her fee rate was 2 to 3%, which is the Canadian industry standard. In the US, similar fee structures exist inside many 401(k) plans and IRAs, particularly through managed funds and advisors who earn commissions. 

Nobody had told her anything was wrong. Definitely nobody had shown her the dollar translation.

Fee rate: the annual percentage deducted from your investment account balance, regardless of whether your investments gained or lost value that year.

The Department of Labor estimates that just 1% in annual fees can reduce your account balance by 28% over 35 years. 

One percent. At 2 to 3%, you can do the math.

What One Calculation Revealed: The $400,000 Number

Inside my program, nurses run a fee calculator that translates their current fee rate into a lifetime dollar figure. It accounts for their current balance, their remaining investing horizon, and the compounding effect of fees paid year after year.

For this nurse, the number came out to $400,000.

That is not a projection of what she might lose if things go badly. That is the estimated difference between the fees on her current account and a low-cost alternative invested over the same period.

She was halfway through my program when she ran the calculation. Her response: "It's not too late. I've spent 20 years not knowing this, but I can still save $400,000."

She switched to low-cost ETFs–exchange-traded funds with expense ratios around 0.25%, compared to the 2 to 3% she had been paying. With changing her paycheck or her investing habits, she’ll come away with a completely different outcome.

The Other Thing That Almost Cost a Nurse Thousands

The fee story is not the only reason I am writing this.

Around the same time, another nurse in my program nearly wired five figures to an investing scam. She had spent three months inside what appeared to be a legitimate investing group on WhatsApp. The organizers patiently answered questions, they built up community in the group, and they gave small early wins that felt real. She was even able to withdraw $800 from an “investment” that they’ve helped her set up.

Then the group launched what they called a beta opportunity where they were talking about “discounted block trades,” and “triple compounding returns” usually only available to big banks. Then they gave her a script to tell her bank to send them five figures from her account.

She almost sent the money.

What stopped her was a set of lessons she had learned inside my program. She knew what realistic long-term investing returns actually look like. She recognized the urgency language. She knew that no legitimate investment opportunity requires you to explain yourself to your bank. 

She started asking questions, and the WhatsApp group just disappeared.

The whole operation unraveled in 48 hours. She figured out they’d used stolen photos, and fabricated profiles, and she pieced together that she had been part of what’s called a “pig butchering scam.” 

She told me that she felt ashamed to have stayed in the group for so long, but the important thing is that in the end she did not wire the money.

These scams are not random. Scammers go after people like nurses specifically because nurses have steady income and tend to extend trust. The scammers are patient. They build relationships over months before asking for anything. By the time they make the ask, the target has been carefully prepared.

What protected her was a foundation of real financial knowledge.

What Both Stories Have in Common

One nurse lost $400,000 to fees she could not see. Another almost lost five figures to people she had learned to trust. 

Thankfully both stories end well–for the same reason: they knew what to look for.

Hidden investment fees cause you to continuously shift your own money to the bank due to their invisibility. When you learn to find the percentages and translate them into dollar amounts, the invisibility is gone. You can understand what’s happening and make a better decision.

Financial scams depend on unfamiliarity. When you understand what realistic investing returns look like, what scarcity tactics feel like, and what a red flag sounds like, the scam becomes obvious.

Learning to invest on your own as a nurse is not just about building wealth. It is about building the knowledge that protects the money you have already earned.

What to Check in Your Own Accounts

If you want to know what fees are costing you, here is where to start:

1.   Find your “expense ratio.” On any mutual fund or ETF, this is listed in the fund's prospectus or on your brokerage's fund detail page. It's the annual fee charged as a percentage of your investment.
2.  Find your advisor fee. If you work with a financial advisor, check your agreement for an “assets-under-management (AUM) fee.” This is typically 0.5 to 2% per year on top of fund fees.
3.  Add them together. That is what they call your total fee “drag.” Even 1% annually costs 28% over 35 years per Department of Labor estimates. At 2 to 3%, run the math for your specific balance and timeline.
4.  Compare to low-cost alternatives. Index ETFs tracking the S&P 500 or total market typically carry expense ratios below 0.10%. The difference between 2.5% and 0.10% over 30-years of investing is not small.

The money you have already earned deserves to be protected. You just have to learn where to look. If you want to understand the full picture — what realistic investing looks like on a nursing salary and how to set it up — start with the free training below.

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Angel Mathis (MN, MPH, ARNP, RN, FNP-Bc) is the founder of Nurses Investing For Wealth LLC and creator of the first State Board of Nursing Approved continuing education investing program designed specifically for nurses in the USA and Canada.