What is the ER of your Equity Portfolio now?

natureexplorer · Post by **natureexplorer** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:15 am

Vanguard has recently dropped the ER of a lot of the their funds like FTSE ex-US Small Cap, FTSE ex-US, and Total International. Interestingly, some funds also saw an increase in ER, particularly for US small cap/style funds.

What is the average expense ratio (ER) of the equity portion of your portfolio now?

By the way, I find the average ER of the total and/or fixed income portfolio to be less easily comparable as a lot of people use vehicles that have a zero ER (CDs, I-Bonds, invidiual treasuries/TIPS, etc). Hence the focus on the equity ER.

dad2000 · Post by **dad2000** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:34 am

.20%, mostly ETFs. Would be lower except that I use the REIT fund in my 401K which has higher ER.

Fixed income is .75%, mostly because I have to use PIMCO in my 401K.

Jake46 · Post by **Jake46** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:42 am

0.19. Spartan Total Market Fund helps.

natureexplorer · Post by **natureexplorer** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:56 am

Mine dropped from 0.19% to 0.17%. Legacy holdings still keep my ER somewhat high.

For reference, a portfolio with 50% Vanguard Total Stock and 50% Vanguard Total International would have an ER of about 0.13%.

Boglenaut · Post by **Boglenaut** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:01 am

natureexplorer wrote:
What is the average expense ratio (ER) of the equity portion of your portfolio now?

.106 (Equity Only)
.133 (Bond Only)
.112 (Overall)

I have a TIPS fund I cannot roll over, so that is causing the difference.

You are right...it's gone down now that VG made changes.

momar · Post by **momar** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:58 am

0.08% for the entire thing

Noobvestor · Post by **Noobvestor** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:13 pm

momar wrote:0.08% for the entire thing

Institutional shares via an employer 401K? All Total Market (Stock/Bond) admiral? Nice work, either way.

I'm .20%, which apparently is also exactly the Vanguard average. Much of this comes from ex-US small (no admiral shares) and to some extent EM.

gkaplan · Post by **gkaplan** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:30 pm

The weighted expense ratio of my equity portfolio is 0.219% The weighted expense ratio of my entire portfolio, with the G fund making up 33.216% of my portfolio, is 0.155%.

rai · Post by **rai** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:35 pm

Just my VG (ETFs) 0.14%

momar · Post by **momar** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:42 pm

Noobvestor wrote:
momar wrote:0.08% for the entire thing
Institutional shares via an employer 401K? All Total Market (Stock/Bond) admiral? Nice work, either way.

I'm .20%, which apparently is also exactly the Vanguard average. Much of this comes from ex-US small (no admiral shares) and to some extent EM.

My 401k is excellent. The us bond fund, for example, has a 0.05% er.

elgob.bogle · Post by **elgob.bogle** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:43 pm

.1137 overall (.1113 bonds /.1164 equities) Vanguard TISM changes helped

elgob

GregLee · Post by **GregLee** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:46 pm

According to the Morningstar portfolio manager, the weighted average ER of my portfolio is 1.29%. Most of my portfolio is actively managed mutual stock funds.

Slick8503 · Post by **Slick8503** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:00 pm

.16 ~30% in a .02% SP500 401k fund helps.

wwross · Post by **wwross** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:14 pm

.21 According to Morningstar XRay

stevewolfe · Post by **stevewolfe** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:15 pm

Too lazy to break out the equity portion, but overall portfolio is 0.324%.

Dale_G · Post by **Dale_G** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:36 pm

0.097% for equities and 0.13% for bonds = 0.112% overall. It is surely better than 10 or 20 years ago, even at Vanguard. There must be something to shareholder ownership plus "economy of scale".

Dale

FlyHi · Post by **FlyHi** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:40 pm

Total is 0.43%. If I am figuring correctly equity is 0.60%/bonds 0.38%. Out of 6 funds one bond fund is from VG + I own Wellesley Adm.

I wonder how the E/Rs relate to total returns.

Tortoise · Post by **Tortoise** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:51 pm

Morningstar gives total ER as 0.15%. That includes a couple Pimco bond funds in my 401k that make up 50% of the holdings there.

Clearly_Irrational · Post by **Clearly_Irrational** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:16 pm

For my portfolio as a whole it's 0.195 (It would be lower but my gold etf has a 0.4 ER)

DSInvestor · Post by **DSInvestor** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:19 pm

About 0.11% for TSM and FTSE All World ex-US.
Bond holdings are also 0.11%

Dale_G · Post by **Dale_G** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:28 pm

FlyHi wrote:Total is 0.43%. If I am figuring correctly equity is 0.60%/bonds 0.38%. Out of 6 funds one bond fund is from VG + I own Wellesley Adm.

I wonder how the E/Rs relate to total returns.

The simple answer is that total returns are reduced by the amount of the expense ratio. That is why it is important to keep expenses low if you can. Unfortunately, there are a lot of high expense funds out there, and folks often don't have any low cost choices in their 401k.

There is no "fault" here, but your equity er is 0.60%. Mine is less than 0.10%. All else being equal, my total return should be about 0.5% greater than yours each year. Over 20 years, that 1/2% would result in 10% more wealth.

Dale

Scandinavian · Post by **Scandinavian** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:42 pm

0.20% over here, which is a lot less than what is common in Sweden. Index funds are still a small occurence here, but on the rise. I'm really glad I've found Vanguard's ETF's.

Marmot · Post by **Marmot** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:59 pm

.10 for everything. Like above, much too lazy to break it out from total portfolio.

ruralavalon · Post by **ruralavalon** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:24 pm

Equity er = 0.12%

Overall er = <0.09%

Majormajor78 · Post by **Majormajor78** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 4:33 pm

.14 for me but next year I might be able to upgrade to the advantage class of my Spartan funds. I'd love to squeeze it down below .10 but it's hard to do with a firm tilt to small and emerging markets.

HongKonger · Post by **HongKonger** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:22 pm

0.35 due to a couple of iShares etfs at 0.59. Working on getting it down though.

iceport · Post by **iceport** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:40 pm

0.15% for equity allocation
0.15% for entire portfolio

Roughly 50% of the portfolio is subject to a 0.10% third party administrator fee. (When that doubles the expense ratio, that's still not too bad.)

─Pete

Norris · Post by **Norris** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:11 pm

0.08 for entire portfolio, equity portion would be somewhat higher.

Norris

investor.saver1 · Post by **investor.saver1** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:30 pm

.10% equities. .11% overall

Khanmots · Post by **Khanmots** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:34 pm

0.27% for equities
0.24% overall

In a month or so after I get to do some admiral conversions I should be around
0.24% for equiites
0.21% overall

Should note I run a high international allocation and have a high tilt to small caps.

Edit: note, that this includes 401k plan admin fees of roughly 0.10% on 65-70% of the portfolio (includes all the bonds)

Khanmots · Post by **Khanmots** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:41 pm

petrico wrote:0.15% for equity allocation
0.15% for entire portfolio

Roughly 50% of the portfolio is subject to a 0.10% third party administrator fee. (When that doubles the expense ratio, that's still not too bad.)

─Pete

I've got an interesting case in my 401k where the plan admin fee is roughly 0.10% and the fund ER is 0.01%, so it's increasing my ER by a factor of 10!

mwm158 · Post by **mwm158** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:50 pm

deleted

LH · Post by LH » Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:56 am

roughly 0.12 ER +- .02

LH · Post by LH » Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:59 am

mwm158 wrote:.10% overall
.12% equities
.03% bonds

This is actually less than I thought it was. I was thinking of playing some games to drop it further, but now I'm thinking it wouldn't be worth the time.

heheh, having only 211 posts, I will take you at your word that its not worth your time, now some of us, including me, I would fall on the floor laughing if we made that comment, since our opportunity cost is typing another on of our 1000+ messages like this, versus getting another 0.01 which will actually pay us something : P

kermit · Post by **kermit** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:05 pm

Overall: 0.13%

I should be able to get it down to 0.11% towards the end of this year.

lwfitzge · Post by **lwfitzge** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:07 pm

overall .17

madbrain · Post by **madbrain** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:48 pm

0.053% for my domestic equity funds, 0.187% for my international equity funds.
Combined 0.121% ER.

Overall investment portfolio = 0.129%.

willimusk · Post by **willimusk** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:12 pm

.12% for the whole enchilada.

zaboomafoozarg · Post by **zaboomafoozarg** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:15 pm

About .20%, with bonds it's .23%.

curiouskitty · Post by **curiouskitty** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:07 pm

0.2019% currently, but hoping to get it down a few hundredths of a percent when my 401(k) moves to Signal shares of VGTSX, VISGX, etc. in a few weeks

2beachcombers · Post by **2beachcombers** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 1:51 pm

Deferred accounts---0.19---- Spartan + ETFs w/ Value tilt, int, REITs, 35% bonds
Taxable accounts----0.11---- Spartan + VSS, emerging mkts, 15% Muni's

Total account--------0.14 ER

jerry

EDIT--added cash in taxable accounts

letsgobobby · Post by **letsgobobby** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 1:55 pm

11 basis points overall.

nimo956 · Post by **nimo956** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:40 pm

0.06% for the equity portion
0.08% overall

nisiprius · Post by **nisiprius** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:09 pm

0.11%. Isn't it odd that Vanguard doesn't calculate that for you? Or do they?

kenyan · Post by **kenyan** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:25 pm

0.26 overall. Could be better, but some restrictions on employer accounts prevent a rock-bottom overall rate. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy, given that a couple of recent moves have managed to get me down from about 0.44 while maintaining my AA.

serbeer · Post by **serbeer** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:25 pm

0.16%

natureexplorer · Post by **natureexplorer** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:01 pm

nisiprius wrote:0.11%. Isn't it odd that Vanguard doesn't calculate that for you? Or do they?

Vanguard does calculate the average ER for you.

In the "Vanguard Portfolio Watch" there is a tab called "Costs, Taxes & Manager Risk". Then look for "Your Portfolio's Average" in the graph.

BC_Doc · Post by **BC_Doc** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:52 pm

VTI plus VEU-- 0.13%

I hadn't noticed VEU had lowered its MER-- thanks for pointing this out. Wow, Vanguard wins again. Thank you Jack Bogle for having making such a big impact on this retail investor!

Random Musings · Post by **Random Musings** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:55 am

0.194%. Due to (higher) 401k plan costs

and those damn legacy holdings.

RM

FabLab · Post by **FabLab** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:04 am

natureexplorer wrote:
nisiprius wrote:0.11%. Isn't it odd that Vanguard doesn't calculate that for you? Or do they?
Vanguard does calculate the average ER for you.

In the "Vanguard Portfolio Watch" there is a tab called "Costs, Taxes & Manager Risk". Then look for "Your Portfolio's Average" in the graph.

.09%

If one's default is total holdings, it's easy with VG to select out equities that may span taxable and various tax-deferred (IRA, Roth) to create a group that is all equities, save it, then VG will compute that ER.