The diversified no load mutual fund strategy of the Vanguard 500 Index Fund
The Standard & Poors 500 stock index is the most common equity index fund benchmark in the U.S. The S and P 500 tracks about 75% of publicly traded U.S. equity market asset value. The dominant issue in choosing among passively managed index mutual funds and ETF funds benchmarked against the S & P 500 is that securities industry management and trading fees are all over the map from reasonably low to shockingly high. If you are naive enough to pay higher expense ratios for what are just commodity S&P 500 index funds, then the high investment fees that you pay are just a wealth transfer from you to the financial industry that repeatedly bleeds your personal investment portfolio.
According to Vanguard’s website, the investment strategy of the Vanguard 500 index mutual fund is to use a passive management or index “investment approach designed to track the performance of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, a widely recognized benchmark of U.S. stock market performance that is dominated by the stocks of large U.S. companies. The fund attempts to replicate the target index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the stocks that make up the index, holding each stock in approximately the same proportion as its weighting in the index.”
Brief overview of the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX)
Management index fund expenses total .18% per year. There are no sales load fees and no 12b-1 fees are added to the annual management expense ratio. Investment fund portfolio transactions costs are also very low. Annual portfolio turnover, which is a trading cost proxy, is only about 5%.
Founded in 1976, the Vanguard 500 Index Fund is the oldest index fund tracking the Standard and Poors 500 composite index. The fund has total net assets of $129.4 billion. A subset of these assets are held as VFINX shares, the share class with the lowest minimum initial investment requirement. The minimum initial deposit required for an individual investor to open a taxable account with VFINX shares is $3,000.
The Vanguard fund family website is at www.vanguard.com. Their customer service telephone number is 1-800-662-2739.
The Vanguard 500 Index Fund is one of the lower cost no load index mutual funds.
To buy index funds, click on any of the 10 low cost, no load S&P 500 index funds below to find additional information about them. The article “Top 10 S&P 500 Index Funds” explains how this list was developed. The five letter term in parentheses is the fund’s trading symbol.
- California Investment S&P 500 Index Fund (SPFIX)
- Fidelity Spartan 500 Index Fund (FSMKX)
- Schwab S & P 500 Index Fund (SWPPX)
- SSga S&P 500 Index Fund (SVSPX)
- T Rowe Price Equity Index Fund 500 (PREIX)
- United Association S&P500 Index Fund (UAIIX)
- USAA S&P 500 Index Fund – Member (USSPX)
- Vanguard 500 Index Fund – Admiral (VFIAX)
- Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX)
- Vantagepoint 500 Index Fund – Stock II (VPSKX)
You should be able to go directly to most of these 10 funds to buy them. Either call them or download the investment forms from their websites. When you shop for any investment, always pay attention to the details. Understand whether there are other restrictions, costs, and purchase conditions associated with buying any index mutual fund.
Your decision on whether to purchase or to sell any investment is yours and yours alone. READ OUR WEBSITE DISCLAIMER HERE: No Load Index Funds
