People chase shiny things. Artificial intelligence, Bitcoin… it’s all very exciting. Like watching a particularly bright fire. But wealth, real wealth, isn’t usually built on fireworks. It’s built on… well, on not losing much. A recent study, and you can take studies with a grain of salt the size of a grapefruit, showed 84% of those stock-picking professionals couldn’t beat the simple indexes. So it goes.
That’s how these index funds, these Exchange Traded Funds, became popular. Why pay someone to play the stock market when you can just… own the whole thing, for almost nothing? It’s not glamorous. It’s not going to make you a legend. But it might keep you from being completely broke.
Here are five of them. Don’t expect miracles. Just… a quiet sort of hope.
1. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI 0.25%) is, as the name suggests, pretty much everything. Over 3,500 stocks. Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple… all the usual suspects. And a lot of companies you’ve never heard of. Which is fine. The point isn’t to pick winners. It’s to own them all, the winners and the losers. I prefer this to just owning the big 500. Sectors fall in and out of favor. Trying to predict which ones will rise is a fool’s errand. This is as close to “set it and forget it” as you’re likely to get. And we all know how reliable forgetting can be.
2. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO 0.35%). If you insist on only owning the big companies, this is for you. They’re generally more stable, generate more cash. Which is nice. But it’s a bit like only buying blue cars. It works, but you’re missing out on all the other colors. It’s a perfectly reasonable choice, if you’re comfortable with reasonable.
3. Vanguard Total International Stock ETF
The Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS 0.37%) does for the rest of the world what the others do for the U.S. Over 8,500 stocks. International stocks have been underperforming for years. People avoid them. Which is a mistake. They’re cheaper, different, and sensitive to different things. Diversification. It’s a boring word, but it might save you from a lot of heartache. And heartache, believe me, is plentiful.
4. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF
The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG +0.03%) invests in companies that consistently raise their dividends. They’re generally boring, stable companies. They don’t promise you the moon. They just keep paying you a little bit of money, year after year. It’s not exciting, but it’s reliable. Like a slightly leaky faucet. And in the grand scheme of things, a little bit of reliability is worth a lot.
5. Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF
The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND +0.10%). Thousands of bonds. Bonds have had a rough few years. But they’re starting to look… reasonable again. Yields are up. They don’t get much attention when stocks are soaring. But when the market crashes, people remember bonds. They’re a bit like having a parachute. You hope you never need it, but you’re awfully glad it’s there. So it goes.
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2026-02-26 18:02