Another Vanguard problem

[VanWinkle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Major Tom Me too. In fact, once I did it, I wondered why I'd resisted changing over for so long.

What is missing is that some people hate change and even like to complain, especially about the very large companies that make the news often(Walmart, Vanguard, Fidelity, Chick-fil-A, etc. Some companies deserve the complaints and some are just targets for being big/different. I am glad it went well for you and maybe more peeps will try it to find out it isn't really that hard or bad.

VW

[Rianne]

Hmm, I continue to read the 13 pages of this thread. I think VG is great, no issues. I guess I could complain it takes 10 seconds to sign in, then another 10 minutes to check my accounts, personal performance (IRR to date), look at treasuries and CDs, check my confirmations, take a quick look at my monthly statement, maybe buy a CD or two then sign out.

[JoeWras]

LOL. I did this conversion the day after they first asked, seven years ago.

The only thing I didn't like was getting two 1099s that year.

[SecondCor521]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau Maybe Vanguard will lower their prices in the future - but I doubt it.

They were the low cost leader for decades. (Yes, others have mostly caught up now.)

At least for my family, they have reduced expenses regularly over a long period of time. As one simple example, when we started investing in VFINX, I think the ER was about a dozen or 15 basis points. Now I have VFIAX which is 3 or 4 basis points. That's a 75% reduction in costs over several decades where inflation otherwise has easily gone up by 300 or 400%. So in real terms, Vanguard is about 16 times cheaper than when we started. And that ignores the better user experience and efficiency gains over that time - used to have to wait for paper statements in the mail and mail checks in for deposit - now a website and ACH or wires are much easier to do and faster and cheaper for both sides.

And those cost reductions over time ignore the fact that they were perhaps a quarter to a fifth of the cost of comparable firms back in the 90s.

And yes, again, others have caught up, and might have somewhat of a customer service edge over Vanguard. But they caught up in part due to the downward pressure on costs by Vanguard doing a better job for less cost for a very long time. So all the people using Fidelity and Schwab and other discount brokers and getting lots of good stuff for nearly free still probably have Vanguard to thank.

[oldtimer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondCor521 They were the low cost leader for decades. (Yes, others have mostly caught up now.) At least for my family, they have reduced expenses regularly over a long period of time. As one simple example, when we started investing in VFINX, I think the ER was about a dozen or 15 basis points. Now I have VFIAX which is 3 or 4 basis points. That's a 75% reduction in costs over several decades where inflation otherwise has easily gone up by 300 or 400%. So in real terms, Vanguard is about 16 times cheaper than when we started. And that ignores the better user experience and efficiency gains over that time - used to have to wait for paper statements in the mail and mail checks in for deposit - now a website and ACH or wires are much easier to do and faster and cheaper for both sides. And those cost reductions over time ignore the fact that they were perhaps a quarter to a fifth of the cost of comparable firms back in the 90s. And yes, again, others have caught up, and might have somewhat of a customer service edge over Vanguard. But they caught up in part due to the downward pressure on costs by Vanguard doing a better job for less cost for a very long time. So all the people using Fidelity and Schwab and other discount brokers and getting lots of good stuff for nearly free still probably have Vanguard to thank.

VFINX expense ratio today is 14 basis points per Vanguard
https://institutional.vanguard.com/i...ails/fund/0040

[tulak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldtimer VFINX expense ratio today is 14 basis points per Vanguard https://institutional.vanguard.com/i...ails/fund/0040

VFINX is closed. Vanguard closed their investor funds and moved everyone to their admiral funds.

VFIAX is Vanguard’s S&P500 fund which has an ER of 4 basis points.

[oldtimer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulak VFINX is closed. Vanguard closed their investor funds and moved everyone to their admiral funds. VFIAX is Vanguard’s S&P500 fund which has an ER of 4 basis points.

Then how can there be a YTD return of 18.01% as of 8/14/23? It is closed to new investors, but what about some old 401k plans or possible a Vanguard fund of funds that still uses VFINX?

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau You know, even if I believed it cost them $25/year for the mailings, that seems like chump change compared to the value of the accounts being reported on. Now, maybe they could have at least started with a requirement of certain level of funds under management at V. Or, I think they could have condensed their mailings based on SSN. I think - since I had to switch to brokerage accounts - I get 8 statement which includes DW's. They could condense that to two reports with one set of boiler plate.

You can get this done... mine are consolidated... just looked and finally found them online... total of 16 pages with only one set of boilerplate stuff... called 'household statement'...

[tulak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldtimer Then how can there be a YTD return of 18.01% as of 8/14/23? It is closed to new investors, but what about some old 401k plans or possible a Vanguard fund of funds that still uses VFINX?

Yeah, looks like VFINX has some legacy investors?

VFINX has 3.2B in assets vs 439.2B for VFIAX, 340.7B for VOO, and 138.1B for VFFSX. Total assets of 921.4B for all share classes.

So not much left in VFINX.