I have some dumb Vanguard questions.....

[Bluegrass]

Is there kinda sorta such a thing as a simple, one size fits all approach to Vanguard investing?

By that I mean this: most people would do well to select these Vanguard funds and begin incrementally co-equally putting money in them?

If one received quarterly checks from passive income type investments, what would be the most automated and efficient way to facilitate getting some or all of that money into an appropriate array of Vanguard vehicles? And please don't skip the "how to open a Vanguard account" step.

Thanks.

 

[Sunset]

If you have opened a bank account online, you should be fine opening a Vanguard account online
https://investor.vanguard.com/home/

If you cannot do that , then go here to get their phone number and phone them, they can mail you paperwork, or maybe do it over the phone, or walk you through doing it online.
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/serviceCenter/#/brokerage

Once you have an account open, Vanguard has lots of funds to chose from, which one is good for you (if you only wanted one) is largely dependent upon your age.

 

[travelover]

A very simple approach is to just buy a target date fund based on when you plan to retire. You can tweak it buying an earlier or later date to have more or less stocks vs bonds. Vanguard will automatically invest by withdrawing from a bank account at an interval that you set.

 

[REWahoo]

Is there kinda sorta such a thing as a simple, one size fits all approach to Vanguard investing?

By that I mean this: most people would do well to select these Vanguard funds and begin incrementally co-equally putting money in them?

If one received quarterly checks from passive income type investments, what would be the most automated and efficient way to facilitate getting some or all of that money into an appropriate array of Vanguard vehicles? And please don't skip the "how to open a Vanguard account" step.

Thanks.

There is an entire website devoted to answering your questions: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php

 

[HadEnuff]

Bluegrass, there really isn't a "one size fits all", but it's not very complicated to find an appropriate vehicle (or two) with Vanguard.
Your age, how much you will be investing, and of course, your tolerance for the ups and downs of the stock market will determine which vehicles are best suited for you.Also, whether this is money that is tax deferred (like an IRA) or money that is not, will influence which vehicles are best for you to minimize the tax bite.

Many people on this forum can give you very good guidance on the subject of investment vehicles, and you can keep it as simple as putting it into 1 fund.

As far as opening an account, it's really easy. Get on the VG website and it will steer you step by step on how to do it.

Don't be afraid to ask specific questions on this forum. There are some really clever people here. Especially with investing.

 

[MRG]

If you have opened a bank account online, you should be fine opening a Vanguard account online
https://investor.vanguard.com/home/

If you cannot do that , then go here to get their phone number and phone them, they can mail you paperwork, or maybe do it over the phone, or walk you through doing it online.
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/serviceCenter/#/brokerage

Once you have an account open, Vanguard has lots of funds to chose from, which one is good for you (if you only wanted one) is largely dependent upon your age.

+1

They make it very easy to get started. They'll walk you through the process. I'd suggest looking at the info and call. They actually use the same app you are so it's easier to help.

 

[stephenson]

While I would not have pointed this out three years ago ... certainly, not 5-10 years ago ... I think it is appropriate to do so now.

I have recently excited the workplace - and, I rolled lump sum portion of defined plan to Vanguard IRA (have had accounts with them for years) ... and, I rolled 401K to Fidelity.

After having dealt with both on phone and on line, I find I like Fidelity more. They clearly targeted Vanguard and Schwab several years ago and are now developing and deploying basic and advanced modeling tools you can use yourself - or get assistance from personal assistance (given certain levels of holdings).

Again, nada in it for me ... and, I will maintain accounts with both, but when I want to screen for investments of all kinds, buy/sell at lowest rates, buy/sell ishares for zero, talk with quick witted pros on the phone, conduct interactive online telecon/discussions with my advisor, interact to send money, deposit checks by taking a photo of them, build a model for my wife and I, maintain a dashboard of both the Fidelity and the Vanguard holdings as well as any other banking institutions ... I go to Fidelity.

I probably have missed some of the Vanguard offerings and services ...

Never expected Fidelity to take this path.

 

[MRG]

While I would not have pointed this out three years ago ... certainly, not 5-10 years ago ... I think it is appropriate to do so now.

I have recently excited the workplace - and, I rolled lump sum portion of defined plan to Vanguard IRA (have had accounts with them for years) ... and, I rolled 401K to Fidelity.

After having dealt with both on phone and on line, I find I like Fidelity more. They clearly targeted Vanguard and Schwab several years ago and are now developing and deploying basic and advanced modeling tools you can use yourself - or get assistance from personal assistance (given certain levels of holdings).

Again, nada in it for me ... and, I will maintain accounts with both, but when I want to screen for investments of all kinds, buy/sell at lowest rates, buy/sell ishares for zero, talk with quick witted pros on the phone, conduct interactive online telecon/discussions with my advisor, interact to send money, deposit checks by taking a photo of them, build a model for my wife and I, maintain a dashboard of both the Fidelity and the Vanguard holdings as well as any other banking institutions ... I go to Fidelity.

I probably have missed some of the Vanguard offerings and services ...

Never expected Fidelity to take this path.

Yes at least 5 years ago my Fidelity rep told me they were actively targeting Vanguard's low cost business model.

Look back to before 2007. Fidelity was number one(AUM) for a very long time.

Vanguard was a fly in the big fund's soup for many years. If you look at the ICI's data on fund fees it's pretty clear industry fee's seem to drop as Vanguard's AUM increases. Maybe data scew?

 

[slv1]

The Vanguard 3 or 4 fund portfolio is simple to set up and do. Call vanguard and they will walk you through it.

Fidelity and Schwab have started to have funds with fees near Vanguard levels. If you don't want to put all your investments with on firm then call them as well and set up similar accounts. Make sure the fees on the back end are zero like vanguard.

Set it and forget it. Or just check on it once a year or every other year to rebalance.

If you don't know how to tax loss harvest when you rebalance then you can hire an accountant or financial planner by the hour to show you. Once you know how, you will not need them anymore.

 

[travelover]

I think that Fidelity is also a fine choice, but sometimes for a newbie investor additional choices just make it harder to get started. Thus my suggestion to simply go with a Vanguard target fund for the anticipated year of retirement. You can argue for "better" choices, but I know that I wasted years in analysis paralysis.

 

[UpAnchor]

I have recently excited the workplace - and, I rolled lump sum portion of defined plan to Vanguard IRA (have had accounts with them for years) ... and, I rolled 401K to Fidelity.



After having dealt with both on phone and on line, I find I like Fidelity more. They clearly targeted Vanguard and Schwab several years ago and are now developing and deploying basic and advanced modeling tools you can use yourself - or get assistance from personal assistance (given certain levels of holdings).



Again, nada in it for me ... and, I will maintain accounts with both, but when I want to screen for investments of all kinds, buy/sell at lowest rates, buy/sell ishares for zero, talk with quick witted pros on the phone, conduct interactive online telecon/discussions with my advisor, interact to send money, deposit checks by taking a photo of them, build a model for my wife and I, maintain a dashboard of both the Fidelity and the Vanguard holdings as well as any other banking institutions ... I go to Fidelity.

Very interesting! I've done the exact same thing with my ESOP distribution and 401k leaving me at about 2/3 Vanguard and 1/3 Fidelity. But in my case, I find I prefer Vanguard both for their fund offerings and their (to me) simpler online dashboard. Since I'm mostly in index funds and am not a "trader" per se, Fidelity distracts my eyes with a bunch of stuff I just don't need. Vanguard, meanwhile, tells me just what I need to know and no more. So it really does depend on the individual's needs and I can certainly see why active traders prefer some of Fidelity's tools. (I do like that Fidelity has a brick & mortar presence nearby.)

But as others have indicated, either would serve the OP perfectly well.

 

[DrRoy]

I have done business with both F and V over the years but now have F as my primary institution and no V any more. F has more options and generally equal low fees. I believe that you could get assistance from either to get set up and allocated.