[POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve?

Discuss all general (i.e. non-personal) investing questions and issues, investing news, and theory.

Pick three things you'd like Vanguard to do or improve

Seamless connection between mutual fund and VBS account, with improved VBS functionality
68
9%
Stronger password security: longer; upper/lowercase; 2 factor
111
15%
Rebalancing tool
81
11%
Better "Portfolio Watch" (M* X-ray based?) with more accurate and complete asset allocation data
104
14%
Show more than 5 years of portfolio performance data
70
9%
Coverdells
11
1%
A real Vanguard H.S.A.
49
7%
Smarter layout on printed, mailed statements to cut down on the number of pages
21
3%
Email notification when holding issues a distribution
17
2%
Lower minimum for TIPS auctions.
0
No votes
Admiral version of Vanguard's funds of funds
35
5%
Cancel unfilled mutual fund orders online.
23
3%
More fund offerings (both VG and non-VG)
13
2%
Statement and annual report householding
5
1%
More CD choices
15
2%
Moneymarket fund with competitive rates
34
5%
Per-account beneficiary designation
14
2%
Better checking account (like Charles Schwab or Fidelity)
35
5%
Other (describe in thread)
12
2%
Don't mess with Vanguard; it's just fine the way it is!
21
3%
 
Total votes: 739

Cuzz35
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Cuzz35 »

jidina80 wrote:Other: Include Canadian stocks in the Developed Markets Fund.
+1
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Archie Sinclair
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Archie Sinclair »

As others have noted, the issue of transparency of executive compensation is important. Normally, it would be illegal for a public company to fail to disclose this information, but Vanguard avoids having to do so through a legal loophole.

It's simply indefensible that Vanguard provides no information to us, its investors, about how much we pay its executives, unlike all of the thousands of US companies that Vanguard indexes.
poundwise
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by poundwise »

Is there any way to randomize the order of the choices in this poll for future respondents? The first several choices are getting most of the votes, but we don't know for sure if this is because many people prefer these options, or because people tend not to read to the bottom of polls with 20+ choices.

I'm guessing the poll author intuited the options that would be the most popular, and chose to list them first. He's probably right, but this necessarily creates a bias...
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nisiprius
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by nisiprius »

tfb wrote:It's been reported this is already fixed. New minimum is $1,000.
And, I think this is important, someone says they've actually succeeded in doing it.. As noted, last year Vanguard's site would sort of tease you by giving you the impression you could buy >$10,000 and not rejecting the order until several steps in. Changing my vote accordingly. Hmmmm... offering a rebalancing tool is more important to me than fixing Portfolio Watch...
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Dandy
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Dandy »

My "other" is to provide seemless competitive banking products as alternatives to mutual fund money markets and brokerage CDs.
I think mutual fund money markets have seen their day. I would like to have a VG FDIC money market deposit account or saving account that pays competitive on line bank type rates. I could use this as a sweep account or for exchanges and direct investments. And to offer regualar CDs as to only brokerage CDs again competitive with online bank CDs.

I think Vanguard could capture significant assets it they could apply their low cost (and therefore competitive rates) to bank products. I would like to be able to park my short term cash or dividends for future rebalancing in a better yielding and safer product. There would be almost no reason to put money elsewhere. If they could spruce up their Advantage Account yields I would gladly send pension or social security money to them instead of the big bank I am currently using. There is not much difference with big bank no cost checking and has convenient ATMS and Prime Money Market that pays almost nothing.
Angst
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Angst »

nisiprius wrote:
tfb wrote:It's been reported this is already fixed. New minimum is $1,000.
And, I think this is important, someone says they've actually succeeded in doing it.. As noted, last year Vanguard's site would sort of tease you by giving you the impression you could buy <$10,000 and not rejecting the order until several steps in. Changing my vote accordingly. Hmmmm... offering a rebalancing tool is more important to me than fixing Portfolio Watch...
Well, I'm not ashamed to have been one of the last 2 to know! And needless to say, I'm quite happy now. Anyway, I've re-spent my TIPS vote on having a Vanguard HSA. It irks me to have to leave $5,000 on the table at HSABank in order to avoid fees. Already voted to fix the "portfolio watch", and my lonely, third, "other" vote went to improve Vanguard's Balances and Holdings page, which I find so lacking in basic design intelligence it pains me to even mention.
RobInCT
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by RobInCT »

More than 5 years of performance data, please.

I don't know how many of you remember, but Vanguard used to offer this. It disappeared during or shortly after the great market tank of 2008 for what I can only cynically assume is the obvious reason. I still have about half my funds with Vanguard, but it honestly has left me with a bad taste in my mouth about the company from which I have never fully recovered. Believe me, I was well aware in 2010 that I had earned approximate 0 dollars (or less) in the ten years I had been diligently saving at Vanguard following college graduation in 2001. I didn't appreciate Big Brother playing with the software to try to hide it from me.

I have been hoping that since the market was back up, the feature would return. Alas, no such luck so far.
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Alskar
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Alskar »

grabiner wrote:
Alskar wrote:Explanation of my vote for "Other": Individual tax lot identification in retirement accounts.
Why is this of any use? Do you pay taxes to a foreign country which does not recognize the retirement account?

It is useful in some tax-sheltered accounts; I wil use specific identification if I sell ETFs in my HSA, since the capital gain is taxable in New Jersey.
Being able to easily see the benefits of rebalancing makes it easier for me to rebalance during the tough times. It provides a bit of positive feedback for rebalancing. For example, some of the tax lots I created when I rebalanced on March 5, 2009 (which turned out to be very near the bottom of the market) are now up over 100% in value from when I purchased them. I know this because Fidelity track individual tax lots even in tax-advantaged retirement accounts. That is powerful motivation for me to keep rebalancing.

Vanguard doesn't track individual tax lots so it is harder to see the benefit of rebalancing. You're free to do whatever works for you. YMMV.
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reason-logic
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by reason-logic »

Include a bond maturity ladder in VBS accounts with a bond portfolio of individual bonds, include a duration calculation of bond portfolio.
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celia
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by celia »

My "Other":
Ability to give each of my accounts a nickname. The default for Roths, for example, is Roth 1, Roth 2, . . . Roth n. But if you do a transaction on one of them, the default names are reassigned to the accounts. For example, the transacted account might become Roth 1 and the others get bumped up a digit. (Every year Roth 1 has a different account number.) I have recommended this on the phone to them but nothing has changed.

I also am STILL dissatisfied with the year-end statements. They are hard to read and waste paper. And they do me no good if one side of a paper has an account for person1 and the other side has an account for person2, if I file them (hard copies) in separate file folders.
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Kernschatten
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Kernschatten »

grabiner wrote:It's interesting that the top selection in the poll is a better Portfolio Watch. I don't really need the tool (I have my own spreadsheet), but I would like to see it improved anyway. Almost every time someone posts about Portfolio Watch, I follow up with a note about the inaccuracies, recommending that the poster try M* X-Ray instead.
Is this spreadsheet something that could be shared?

I found this re-balancing tool to be exceptional and would like a Portfolio Watch-type tool. I've used M* X-Ray, however, the price factor is a negative for me.
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grabiner
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by grabiner »

Kernschatten wrote:
grabiner wrote:It's interesting that the top selection in the poll is a better Portfolio Watch. I don't really need the tool (I have my own spreadsheet), but I would like to see it improved anyway. Almost every time someone posts about Portfolio Watch, I follow up with a note about the inaccuracies, recommending that the poster try M* X-Ray instead.
Is this spreadsheet something that could be shared?
My spreadsheet is at http://www.remarque.org/~grabiner/assetalloc.html

There are links to several other asset-allocation spreadsheets on the wiki: Using a Spreadsheet to Maintain a Portfolio

The way all of these spreadsheets work is that you keep track of the allocation of your individual funds, and then update the spreadsheet with the balances. Thus, when I have money to add to my taxable investments, I enter my current balances, check whether I am underweighted in US, developed, or emerging markets, and buy the appropriate fund.
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linenfort
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by linenfort »

grabiner wrote:It's interesting that the top selection in the poll is a better Portfolio Watch. I don't really need the tool (I have my own spreadsheet), but I would like to see it improved anyway. Almost every time someone posts about Portfolio Watch, I follow up with a note about the inaccuracies, recommending that the poster try M* X-Ray instead.
I tried Morningstar a couple of weeks ago, or at least began the process. It seems like a lot of work to enter everything into M*, because I still have a lot of individual stocks. Maybe there's some way to paste or import everything at once. (?)
The beauty of an improved Portfolio Watch would be not having to manually update anything when you trade. Vanguard keeps track of how many shares you have, so it would be convenient to look at everything in-house.

(I do keep a spreadsheet in Google Drive with live price updates, but I don't know how to make it tell me when I have, say, too much in Consumer Discretionary).
jimmyrules712
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by jimmyrules712 »

grabiner wrote:
Kernschatten wrote:
grabiner wrote:It's interesting that the top selection in the poll is a better Portfolio Watch. I don't really need the tool (I have my own spreadsheet), but I would like to see it improved anyway. Almost every time someone posts about Portfolio Watch, I follow up with a note about the inaccuracies, recommending that the poster try M* X-Ray instead.
Is this spreadsheet something that could be shared?
My spreadsheet is at http://www.remarque.org/~grabiner/assetalloc.html

There are links to several other asset-allocation spreadsheets on the wiki: Using a Spreadsheet to Maintain a Portfolio

The way all of these spreadsheets work is that you keep track of the allocation of your individual funds, and then update the spreadsheet with the balances. Thus, when I have money to add to my taxable investments, I enter my current balances, check whether I am underweighted in US, developed, or emerging markets, and buy the appropriate fund.
That URL doesn't seem to work for me (I get a time out error). Same thing with the other Wiki spreadsheets. Is it just me? If not can it be put at a different source?
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Doc
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Doc »

linenfort wrote: I tried Morningstar a couple of weeks ago, or at least began the process. It seems like a lot of work to enter everything into M*, because I still have a lot of individual stocks. Maybe there's some way to paste or import everything at once. (?)
Yes, On the Portfolio Page: <Create> <Import> :D
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by nisiprius »

I use a spreadsheet and always have, but I still voted for fixing Portfolio Watch because it's just SO BAD. I don't exactly rely on it, but I do or did use it as a quick check on whether I need to rebalance. Portfolio Watch did me wrong twice. Nothing serious, just infuriating.

a) Years ago, it was showing that I was just under 20% international, which I was actually at about 22% international--because I held a non-Vanguard balanced fund that had a healthy international allocation, and it believed the fund was 100% domestic.

b) Before the revamp, the LifeStrategy Conservative Growth fund my wife held had a healthy slice of fairly short-term bonds. Within the fund description itself, the pie chart showed "stocks," "bonds," and "short-term reserves" and they were counted as short-term reserves. Within Portfolio Watch, they were counted as "bonds." Grey area, obviously, but, darn it, they should categorize it the same way in both places. I complained a couple of times. One day I got a messaging-system message saying that a fix was forthcoming. I don't know whether that was a sly joke, because that was about six months before the revamp, which "fixed" the problem by changing the fund composition to one that had no short-term reserves, neither cash nor bonds.
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Kernschatten
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Kernschatten »

jimmyrules712 wrote:That URL doesn't seem to work for me (I get a time out error). Same thing with the other Wiki spreadsheets. Is it just me? If not can it be put at a different source?
It is just you -- possibly ISP/DNS. If this happens in the future, you can double check with this: http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Try again and maybe you'll be good to go.
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Phineas J. Whoopee
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Phineas J. Whoopee »

nisiprius wrote:I use a spreadsheet and always have, but I still voted for fixing Portfolio Watch because it's just SO BAD. I don't exactly rely on it, but I do or did use it as a quick check on whether I need to rebalance. Portfolio Watch did me wrong twice. Nothing serious, just infuriating.

a) Years ago, it was showing that I was just under 20% international, which I was actually at about 22% international--because I held a non-Vanguard balanced fund that had a healthy international allocation, and it believed the fund was 100% domestic.
...
[Emphasis added]

Today it shows ~60% of my Total Bond holding as medium-quality medium term, and ~40% of it as high-quality medium term.

But, when I look further, it's counting 100% of Total Bond Index Admiral as medium-quality medium term. It shows 100% of Total Bond Index Institutional Plus as high-quality medium term.

They're the same underlying set of assets.

I'm with you regarding handling one's own recordkeeping, although personally I'll be sticking with MS Money sunset edition (where all my historical data is). (And yes, you do recall correctly that I participated in the thread about the dangers of obsolete data formats.)

I voted for security, portfolio watch, and an HSA.

PJW
[Edited to correct which fund shows as high quality and which as medium.]
Last edited by Phineas J. Whoopee on Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
linenfort
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by linenfort »

Doc wrote:
linenfort wrote: I tried Morningstar a couple of weeks ago, or at least began the process. It seems like a lot of work to enter everything into M*, because I still have a lot of individual stocks. Maybe there's some way to paste or import everything at once. (?)
Yes, On the Portfolio Page: <Create> <Import> :D
Yeah, I've seen that. (Should have mentioned it. Sorry).
I can generate a .CSV file from google docs, but there are a lot of adjustments to make: http://portfolio.morningstar.com/NewPor ... Excel.html
I'll get around to it one of these days.....
...OR Vg will improve Portfolio Watch. :happy
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Eric
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Eric »

Silence Dogood wrote:Does it make sense to ask Vanguard to offer admiral shares of fund of funds when it is not legal for them to do so?
As others have noted, there are several workarounds. I'll suggest another: Have the fund of funds invest solely in Admiral Shares, and then impose a "low balance fee" on customers with balances below $10,000 (the usual Admiral minimum).
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Eric
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Eric »

I didn't vote for "Other," but would like to add one now:

"Offer Admiral shares for individual 401(k) and SIMPLE IRA accounts."

As above, this suggestion could be coupled with a fixed admin fee to cover the extra costs of dealing with those accounts. The extra costs should be relatively level -- no reason to soak a $100,000 account holder for several times the cost of dealing with his or her account.
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by floydtime »

I only voted for one - a real H.S.A. Hopefully it wouldn't have all the stupid "fee games" everyone else has, which makes just having an H.S.A. kind of a pain.
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chaz
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by chaz »

Lower ERs.
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William4u
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by William4u »

Lower ERs on fund of funds would be nice, but I suppose I'm happy for the fund of fund folks to subsidize the people who are willing to manually rebalance.

However, a rebalancing tool would be great. That way I can set it and forget it like a TR fund at admiral prices, and still get the TR people to subsidize me.

Basically, I want to have auto-rebalancing at Admiral prices. One way to do that is to have TR funds that are admiral. Another is to just have a rebalancing tool that rebalances on a regular basis.
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DrDoodle
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by DrDoodle »

poundwise wrote:Is there any way to randomize the order of the choices in this poll for future respondents? The first several choices are getting most of the votes, but we don't know for sure if this is because many people prefer these options, or because people tend not to read to the bottom of polls with 20+ choices. I'm guessing the poll author intuited the options that would be the most popular, and chose to list them first. He's probably right, but this necessarily creates a bias...
Unfortunately, it seems to be too late .... I can change the order of the questions, but the data don't move along with the question. I agree that it would have been better to have them listed randomly; it was just a careless oversight on my part when I very quickly set up the poll.
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Noobvestor
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Noobvestor »

Thanks @Mudpuppy for clarifying some of the non-brute-force PW risks - I thought there were some, vaguely, but appreciate your clarification. I also had not realized (or simply forgotten) that my VG password isn't even case-sensitive ... wow. :/
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BornInCA
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New index funds, enable trust setup, low minimums for LS fun

Post by BornInCA »

Other:

1.) if the STAR fund and the Target Retirement funds have a $1000 minimum, why not have a $1000 minimum for the LifeStrategy funds instead of $3000?

2.) create index funds for International Large Value, International Small Cap Value, Emerging Markets Large Cap Value, Emerging Markets Small Cap Value

3.) help families save for their kids' retirement as soon as they're born by enabling them to inexpensively set up an irrevocable trust which owns a Vanguard variable annuity. (Maybe it should be called the "Vanguard Trust for Retirement" or "Vanguard Retirement Trust". Here are the terms and features of the trust:
a.) Child is beneficiary
b.) Child cannot withdraw funds until he/she becomes disabled, becomes deceased, or reaches age 65
c.) Setup fee is no more than $500
d.) Investment minimum to fund the trust equals the Vanguard Variable annuity investment minimum
e.) Trustee can pick investments
f.) Beneficiary can pick investments after reaching age of 30
g.) Trustee and Beneficiary have the option of selecting successor trustees and successor beneficiaries
h.) Vanguard Trust Services can serve as either successor trustee or co-trustee

For point #3, examples of similar implementation are:
1.) RIC E-trust
2.) Kiss Trust
3.) Paul Merriman's implementation (pdf file) -- The Best Invesment I'll Ever Make

All three have their flaws but I'd like to Vanguard to provide its shareholders an opportunity to implement the best of all 3 above implementations without the flaws. ;)
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Re: New index funds, enable trust setup, low minimums for LS

Post by Default User BR »

BornInCA wrote:2.) create index funds for International Large Value, International Small Cap Value, Emerging Markets Large Cap Value, Emerging Markets Small Cap Value
As I don't use Vanguard for a custodian, these are the sort of changes I'd like to see.


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Duckie
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Duckie »

Do you think Vanguard's been reading this thread?

Vanguard increasing password length
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Clever_Username
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Clever_Username »

Thought occurred to me today: is there a better way to do the external investments?

My employer's retirement plan is through someone other than Vanguard. I periodically check it myself and enter the updated information into Vanguard so I can see everything at once. Paychecks are twice a month and periodically find themselves hitting the account on all sorts of odd times. There's also the need to update the shares list whenever distributions are made (and since there's two bond funds in the 401(k), that's at least monthly).

On the other hand, maybe Vanguard doesn't want - and maybe shouldn't want? - the responsibility of holding onto my user name and password for another site.
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Doc
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Doc »

Clever_Username wrote:Thought occurred to me today: is there a better way to do the external investments?
Quicken. The software updates will cost you about $60 every three years.
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by stan1 »

Doc wrote:
Clever_Username wrote:Thought occurred to me today: is there a better way to do the external investments?
Quicken. The software updates will cost you about $60 every three years.
Or Mint (if you want to give your passwords to an online account aggregator) or a spreadsheet.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by nisiprius »

I completely forgot... I'd like to see Vanguard lower their mutual fund purchase minimums across the board. Maybe not all the way to Schwab's $100, but maybe to $1000 for all of their "core" index funds, and maybe even to $500 for their "core" index funds (Total Stock, Total Bond, Total International).
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BornInCA
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by BornInCA »

nisiprius wrote:I completely forgot... I'd like to see Vanguard lower their mutual fund purchase minimums across the board. Maybe not all the way to Schwab's $100, but maybe to $1000 for all of their "core" index funds, and maybe even to $500 for their "core" index funds (Total Stock, Total Bond, Total International).
How about the LifeStrategy Funds?
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iceport
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by iceport »

I'm actually shocked that the clunky, tedious, confusing rift between Vanguard the mutual fund company and VBS isn't far and away the top selection.

:shock:

Having done business at Fidelity for many years prior to transferring everything to Vanguard, I can honestly say that the VBS connection (or practical lack thereof) has been my biggest single disappointment with Vanguard. My memory may be faulty now eight years later, but when I was first setting up the matrix of Vanguard and VBS accounts for taxable and Roth accounts, it seemed like I was routinely passed between two, maybe even three different representatives who could each only help with a tiny slice of the services provided.

Wow. People are really OK with that?

--Pete
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Phineas J. Whoopee
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Phineas J. Whoopee »

petrico wrote:I'm actually shocked that the clunky, tedious, confusing rift between Vanguard the mutual fund company and VBS isn't far and away the top selection.

:shock:
...
Wow. People are really OK with that?

--Pete
Hi Pete,

I might or might not be OK with it, but I've not used VBS. If I did I suppose I might agree with you and make that my top choice. I wouldn't be surprised if many posters are in my position. I have had brokerage accounts, and still have one, but never with Vanguard, therefore I personally don't see it as a pressing issue.

After all, the question was "What would you like Vanguard to change or improve?".

PJW
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Alskar
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Alskar »

petrico wrote:I'm actually shocked that the clunky, tedious, confusing rift between Vanguard the mutual fund company and VBS isn't far and away the top selection. :shock:

Wow. People are really OK with that?
I agree with your assessment. I'm SO not okay with it that I moved my money to Fidelity and closed my Vanguard accounts. My all-Vanguard ETF portfolio is now at Fidelity.

As an engineering professional, I offer Vanguard the following free, unsolicited advice: Have the folks that created your website look up the term "referential integrity". If they don't understand what they've read about "referential integrity" fire them. This is CS101 stuff that Vanguard can't seem to ever get right. Criminy, the Vanguard website appears to have been written by high-school students not professionals.
Lagom är bäst
mrspremise
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by mrspremise »

floydtime wrote:I only voted for one - a real H.S.A. Hopefully it wouldn't have all the stupid "fee games" everyone else has, which makes just having an H.S.A. kind of a pain.
No kidding!
Default User BR
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by Default User BR »

petrico wrote:I'm actually shocked that the clunky, tedious, confusing rift between Vanguard the mutual fund company and VBS isn't far and away the top selection.
A lot of people either don't use VBS by holding only VG mutual funds or are at another custodian altogether.


Brian
linenfort
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by linenfort »

petrico wrote:I'm actually shocked that the clunky, tedious, confusing rift between Vanguard the mutual fund company and VBS isn't far and away the top selection.
...
--Pete
I have a different problem with VBS that I didn't even mention because, as Brian wrote above, bogleheads tend to own mutual funds.

Very simply, transaction history doesn't work as well as it used to. I still have a many individual stocks from pre-boglehead days and I unload a few a year. I used to be able to search for these stocks by ticker.
* Now that option is gone and I have scroll through a dropdown box containing all my stocks, sans ticker, mostly alphabetically.
* If I no longer have any shares of the stock, I need to scroll past the last stocks that I still hold, the Z's, and continue in the same dropdown to "Previously Held" stocks.
* If I accidentally scroll to the very end without stopping, the dropdown vanishes altogether (just like a popup menu, like Yahoo's mail popup menu) and I have to start all over again. Very uncomfortable.
CrossOverGuy
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by CrossOverGuy »

How about Vanguard match our retirement contributions up to say, 6%? :-) Anything in the organizational structure for or against? :D
lhl12
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by lhl12 »

Alskar wrote:
petrico wrote:I'm actually shocked that the clunky, tedious, confusing rift between Vanguard the mutual fund company and VBS isn't far and away the top selection. :shock:

Wow. People are really OK with that?
I agree with your assessment. I'm SO not okay with it that I moved my money to Fidelity and closed my Vanguard accounts. My all-Vanguard ETF portfolio is now at Fidelity.

As an engineering professional, I offer Vanguard the following free, unsolicited advice: Have the folks that created your website look up the term "referential integrity". If they don't understand what they've read about "referential integrity" fire them. This is CS101 stuff that Vanguard can't seem to ever get right. Criminy, the Vanguard website appears to have been written by high-school students not professionals.
+1

I note that Vanguard has $2 trillion of assets under management. If they were to increase their annual fees by one basis point across the board -- exclusively to invest in IT -- then they could increase their IT budget by $200 million ANNUALLY. This would obviously be excessive and unmanageable if done too quickly, and I am not proposing that Vanguard do so. However I am making the point that Vanguard has gigantic economies of scale and an enormous customer base across which to spread an investment in technology. To me, therefore, there is no excuse for Vanguard to have subpar IT. Rather, they should have best-in-class technology (like Amazon, for example) and use it as a further competitive advantage. It would cost so little as a percentage of AUM, and would create a virtuous circle that would just continue to make Vanguard that much more attractive relative to the competition. I am astonished that Vanguard doesn't see things this way. Being the low-cost provider in a market doesn't require shortchanging technology. To the contrary, it allows investments in systems that most other competitors can't possibly justify,
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House Blend
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Re: [POLL] What would you like Vanguard to change or improve

Post by House Blend »

Speaking of subpar IT...

I'd like them to fix the bugs in their cost basis tracking for covered shares. The bug seems to affect FIFO and SpecID for some bond mutual funds. (Maybe short term bonds only.)

Documented in this post:
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 0#p1710870

Update: possibly fixed:
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 0#p1731570
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