Does anyone use vanguard for mutual funds? I was looking to get into a mutual fund... but sadly I know very little about them. Someone suggested this company to me though.

4/11/2013 12:59:26 AM

I've been considering them, haven't been to happy with fund I'm in currently. This thread is relevant to my interests.

4/11/2013 9:33:08 AM

I have a ROTH IRA through Vanguard, in addition to a few other funds. I've never used another company, but I've been happy with their service and would feel comfortable recommending them.

[Edited on April 11, 2013 at 9:36 AM. Reason : ]

4/11/2013 9:35:37 AM

my roth IRA is with fidelity and my roth 401k is with prudential...both have performed well and the very few times i've contacted either, the CSR has been great

i don't really pay attention to much, though...just check my values a couple of times per year (with each, i'm on a "goal" plan where it gets progressively less aggressive as i get closer to retirement)

4/11/2013 9:45:39 AM

I use Vanguard for both my Roth IRA and my wife's Roth IRA and have for 4ish years or so. I also use it for any mutual funds I buy outside of the Roth. (I use etrade for individual stock purchases). I have been happy so far.

4/11/2013 10:06:23 AM

I have a Roth and SEP IRA through Vanguard, and I switched from Fidelity about 3 years ago. Vanguard is known for their low cost funds, which passes those savings on to you. I picked my funds based on allocation and strategy, and rankings by Money Magazine, MorningStar, and suggested allocation percentages from my financial adviser.

Here is my fund breakdown:
- VWELX Vanguard Wellington Fund (25%) - my core fund, nice blend, one of Vanguard's best performing funds over the past 80 years. 67% stock and 33% bonds with both US and Foreign holdings.
- VFIFX Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund (20%) - another core fund that becomes less aggressive as time passes. Blend of stock/bonds with mix of small/medium/large US and Foreign holdings.
- VGSIX Vanguard REIT Index Fund (15%) - real estate index fund
- NAESX Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund (10%) - US small company blend index fund
- VIMSX Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund (10%) - US medium company blend index fund
- VWIGX Vanguard International Growth (10%) - Foreign large company blend (favoring growth)
- VEIEX Vanguard Emerging Markets (10%) - Emerging Market large company blend

Notes about my choices:
- Since my two core funds favor large US stocks, I diversified into the small-cap index fund and the mid-cap index fund and foreign markets.
- My 401k has more conservative selections, so I stuck to a stronger stock presence in this allocation. My core funds also have bond allocations (which becomes more conservative over time).
- My 401k also has more diverse selections (like technology and utilities), so I stuck to stock funds in this portfolio.

4/11/2013 10:17:26 AM

For our Roth IRAs, I just have both of ours in VFIFX.

For my non IRA/non retirement accounts I have an even split right now in:

VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
VGTSX - Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund
VISGX - Vanguard Small Capitalization Growth Index Fund
VBMFX - Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund

Those investments basically are retirement funds but just not within a retirement-sheltered vehicle. I feed those equally monthly and re-balance annually. I try and keep it super simple for myself. Since these are not in a retirement fund, I don't really sell much (other than to rebalance annually) or try and move in and out of different funds. I picked those 4 and just pump money in each month. I might pick another one to mix in at some point but I'm satisfied for now.


[Edited on April 11, 2013 at 10:34 AM. Reason : ]

4/11/2013 10:25:04 AM

My dad just had me switch over to Dodge and Cox for my Roth IRA. I really don't know the details, but he's been in banking for 30+ years, so I just listen to him and shut up.

4/11/2013 10:28:20 AM

haha. well for me, I never do anything with my Roth so I have no reason to move anywhere else. I'm happy with the funds available and the one I'm in. Low fees, and I just have auto-transfer every month so I don't do anything but monitor it from mint. Hands off and I've been happy with it so far.

Obviously the more investing you do and the more particular someone may be about investing everyone will start to have their own opinions of who they like better.

[Edited on April 11, 2013 at 10:33 AM. Reason : ]

4/11/2013 10:31:42 AM

Assuming this is general investing and not retirement, VFINX is their flagship product, might be a good one to start with if you want some exposure to the market.

Also consider the ETF version of the mutual fund, they're a bit more complicated to buy (have to buy through a money market), but they have slightly lower expenses and buy and sell way faster.

4/11/2013 10:31:43 AM

i have no idea what is even going on in this thread...i don't pay attention to my retirement, i just let it make money

4/11/2013 11:19:37 AM

i'm using vanguard for my retirement and really lucky that my employer matches up to 12% of my salary.

yup 12%

it's been doing really well for me - granted i (like some people in this thread) don't pay much attention to what it's actually investing in, but i'm pleased with what it's done so far.

4/11/2013 11:33:58 AM

Quote :

"VFINX is their flagship product, might be a good one to start with if you want some exposure to the market."

This.

I have holdings in VFINX. I've been extremely pleased with it's performance since the bust.

I also have holdings in, and would highly recommend Janus Twenty (JNTFX).


[Edited on April 11, 2013 at 11:42 AM. Reason : ]

4/11/2013 11:38:49 AM

I think it's safe to say Vanguard mutual funds are a "good" investment vehicle for a personal investor. My Roth (my primary retirement account) is through Vanguard and I'm satisfied with it. I also have a traditional IRA (my beer money account) through Fidelity. I much prefer Fidelity's interface over Vanguard's, but it utilize it much more frequently (I don't play with my Vanguard account), so that makes sense...

4/11/2013 9:43:52 PM

http://www.bogleheads.org

Their wiki has a bunch of great info. I invest solely through Vanguard and it works for me.
I prefer the funds over the ETFs, with the Admiral funds there isn't much of a difference in the ER between the two and for monthly purchases of fixed dollar amounts it is more convenient.

4/13/2013 3:48:21 PM

vanguard funds aren't really "good" or "bad" for the most part.

All but a few of the funds/etfs aren't actively managed they are index funds. Which is kinda like buying a car that drives itself.

Now there are some pretty compelling arguments that passive management is better than active management because the lower fees/expense ratio make up for any perceived benefits active management offers.

The truth is that the majority of active managers out there do not outperform their benchmark indexes and add enough alpha to overcome their fees.

There are many who do though. Whether you believe they are truly adding alpha or if it's random noise (i.e. if you have 25,000 people throw a dart for the very first time at least a couple of them will randomly hit a bullseye whether they're any good or not) is what's important though.


Long story short:

1) Do you believe there are fund managers out there who can outperform their respective index by either generating a higher return or taking on less risk?

2) Do you believe you can identify those managers and invest accordingly?

If the answer to either of those questions is no, then you'll probably like Vanguard.


My personal belief (not to be construed as advice) is that there are managers who can outperform index funds. However, it's a push/pull business full of constraints that limit long term success.

The goal of a mutual fund manager is not to achieve the highest possible returns, it's to make the most money. Now generating great returns tends to correlate with making a lot of money. The problem arises when more and more people identify a "good" (is he good or just lucky so far?) manager and he has huge asset inflows. When you're managing $300 billion dollars smaller stocks can't absorb your flows. It doesn't effing matter what you think about Exxon, Microsoft, or Apple you basically have to own them.

Look at Bill gross/pimco as a bond fund example. if he doesn't like treasuries he can reduce exposure. But if he hates them, where's he gonna park a fucking trillion dollars? The Slovakian Korona? Don't think so.


As a competitive investment professional, he'd probably love to manage $50 million and try to generate the best returns on the planet. But as a human he's probably pretty satisfied making more money a week than God instead.


Another big factor is the very real "career risk" phenomenon. If you have a bad year at work maybe you don't get a bonus or a raise. If a fund manager has a bad year he loses his job and possibly his career. (Look at what happened to Bill Miller, he beat the S&P for 17 consecutive years and then he ate so much pavement in 2008 that he lost his job and his name is now so toxic he's virtually unemployable.)

If you were able to pull back the curtain and look at what's inside a mutual fund you'd find that a great deal of them are nearly mirror images of their benchmark. They focus on marketing/advertising their brand name and sectors that are red hot to draw assets rather than trying to differentiate by 20 years of good returns.

Bad funds get shut down all the time and merged into better ones. This is what we call selection bias. Only the strong survive, so it makes the returns of existing funds look higher than they really were across the mutual fund universe.

Look at hedge funds for example. They aren't required to disclose their returns. But some do. Guess which ones do? The ones that are doing really well. Duh. People who marry ugly women don't take them out for dinner.



[Edited on April 13, 2013 at 5:01 PM. Reason : a]

4/13/2013 4:52:05 PM

Even Bill Gross gets slammed from time to time even though he has the best record (at least bond wise.) In a self directed IRA, don't most brokers (and all discount brokers) offer etf's that follow just abut any index and are a commission in and out with no mgmt. fees?

4/14/2013 8:53:39 PM

I would say doubleline is the best bond manager right now. Gross has had some lean years lately

4/14/2013 10:47:34 PM

Most do not have "management fees" but they still have an internal expense ratio with varying % of fees.

Someone has to be paid to distribute the products, purchase the underlying assets, advertise, etc.

They can vary from like ~.08% (think S&P 500 index) to closer to 1% (think of something a little more complicated like --GLD -- gold that has storage costs for the actual gold bars purchased/sold).

There are also ETF's that are actively managed but these are relatively new and not very common. Certainly not what 99% of people are referring to when discussing ETF's.

[Edited on April 14, 2013 at 11:09 PM. Reason : a]

4/14/2013 11:08:28 PM

I highly recommend using Vanguard ETFs over their Mutual Funds.

No redemption fees, lower expense ratios, and, if you're using VBS, it's free commissions.

4/15/2013 1:37:15 PM

Guess I'm late to the party. My roth is with Vanguard as well.

4/15/2013 8:31:31 PM

Quote :

"don't most brokers (and all discount brokers) offer etf's that follow just abut any index and are a commission in and out with no mgmt. fees?"

Your broker can buy any ETF through your broker, but most don't charge commission on their own ETFs. You'd have to pay commission (or use commission free trades) to buy or sell vanguard etfs through scotttrade, but you wouldn't have to pay commission on vanguard's etfs through vanguard.

4/15/2013 9:19:56 PM

any fund that has to buy advertising on television must not be able to attract investors by weight of evidence.

4/16/2013 2:01:35 AM

I have my roth IRA in vanguard's STAR right now, going to diversify with their VWIGX.

4/16/2013 11:52:20 AM