Vanguard On-line Recommendations

[dharrythomas]

I understand the fact that the on-line tool doesn't fine-tune things as much as most of us would like. What bothered me when I played with it was that all the recommendations came out like below even if the % and amount for each fund was multiples of the Admiral threshold.

Your fund recommendation:

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VTSMX)
Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VGTSX)
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VBMFX)

When Vanguard put it together, as an organization whose stated goal is to look out for its owners, shouldn't they push the people who qualify towards Admiral shares. It should be that hard to add a line to the programming.

Sorry if someone brought this up before.

Harry

[Grt2bOutdoors]

I understand the fact that the on-line tool doesn't fine-tune things as much as most of us would like. What bothered me when I played with it was that all the recommendations came out like below even if the % and amount for each fund was multiples of the Admiral threshold.

Your fund recommendation:

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VTSMX)
Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VGTSX)
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VBMFX)

When Vanguard put it together, as an organization whose stated goal is to look out for its owners, shouldn't they push the people who qualify towards Admiral shares. It should be that hard to add a line to the programming.

Sorry if someone brought this up before.

Harry

Is the questionaire inquiring as to how much in assets you have? I recall it mainly focuses on your need for return and risk tolerance. The average American doesn't have $30K in assets to develop an Admiral portfolio.

[JustMe]

Since the recommendation tool doesn't actually invest the funds, this isn't really that big a deal. If you walk through the process of actually investing in one of the funds, then after you choose the fund and the dollar amount (but before you've finalized the transaction) it will offer you the chance to switch to Admiral shares if the dollar amount is over the threshold for that fund.

Where it might make a small difference is if the recommended investment in a fund is just under the Admiral threshold. In that case, the tool could slightly increase the allocation to that fund while slightly decreasing the allocation to another fund, giving a small expense reduction without any real change in the risk profile.

[ObliviousInvestor]

According to Vanguard's website, they automatically switch you to Admiral shares once the amount you have in the fund qualifies.

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/conten ... iewJSP.jsp

[Geologist]

You should also keep in mind that the cost-savings of Admiral vs. Investor shares for investment amounts at about the Admiral threshold for index funds are minuscule. For example, the difference for Total Bond Index for $9000 is about $10/yr. So even if the recommendation sticks you just below Admiral level, you are not missing much.

As Oblivious Investor points out, when your fund gets large enough, you get converted automatically.

[ps56k]

I understand the fact that the on-line tool doesn't fine-tune things as much as most of us would like.

BTW - Where's the online tool - a URL link ??
And, as others mentioned, the issue of Investor vs Admiral is moot - (cloth or leather) -
when the basic question is car vs pickup truck -

[nisiprius]

I understand the fact that the on-line tool doesn't fine-tune things as much as most of us would like.

BTW - Where's the online tool - a URL link ??

vanguard.com, go to the Personal Investors site, What We Offer, Mutual funds, Use our tool to get an investment recommendation.

Or: Get your mutual fund recommendation.

[ps56k]

Get your mutual fund recommendation.

tnx - no magic - just different slices of the Total Bond, Total Stock, & Total Intl funds...
Thought it might drag in some other assets & funds based upon the extremes of the scale questions.
Tried to skew the survey - but always the same 3-fund solution, just different percentages.