Hello,
I am fairly new to index funds and I would like part of my portfolio in an S&P and I notice some slight differences in these 2 funds but are they significant enough to matter? Would you recommend one over the other?
VFIAX - VG 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares
Exp Ratio - 0.40%
Open
or
VFINX - VG Index Fund Investor Shares
Exp Ratio - 0.140%
Limited (some say Closed, not sure)
Thank you for your help!
Which to select: VFINX or VFIAX
Re: Which to select: VFINX or VFIAX
VFIAX is the Admiral Shares fund. The ER is .04% not .40%. That is $4 of expense for every $10,000 invested. Very inexpensive.
VFINX is the Investor Shares fund. It's closed to new investors. I believe Vanguard merged the 2 funds and lowered Admiral Shares to minimum investment of $3K (used to be $10K).
VFINX is the Investor Shares fund. It's closed to new investors. I believe Vanguard merged the 2 funds and lowered Admiral Shares to minimum investment of $3K (used to be $10K).
Re: VFIAX vs VFINX
It used to be that VFIAX had a minimum investment and VFINX didn't, but VFINX has been discontinued (for new investors) and VFIAX has no minimum. Short answer: buy VFIAX.
Edit: actually I think it was that VFIAX had a higher minimum investment and now the minimum is what VFINX used to be.
Edit: actually I think it was that VFIAX had a higher minimum investment and now the minimum is what VFINX used to be.
Last edited by Halicar on Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Silk McCue
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Re: VFIAX vs VFINX
The ER is .04% for VFIAX not .4% as you typed. It is the better long term choice. The minimum investment to get that rate is $3000.
Cheers
Cheers
Re: Which to select: VFINX or VFIAX
Beth123456 - You had a duplicate post, which I've removed. The replies have been moved into this thread, which is in the Personal Investments forum (portfolio help).
(Thanks to the member who reported the post and provided a link to this thread.)
(Thanks to the member who reported the post and provided a link to this thread.)
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nisiprius
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Re: Which to select: VFINX or VFIAX
VFIAX.
VFINX has been, essentially, superseded by VFIAX. The main interest in it is that when you are exploring backtests, e.g. in PortfolioVisualizer, it is "the right" one to use because it has more history. VFINX is closed to new investors. As far as I know, the only difference between it an VFIAX now is that it has a higher expense ratio. I can't think of any good reason to use VFINX, even if you could.
Also, if you hold VFINX, Vanguard will automatically convert it to VFIAX... eventually. (Sometimes it takes them a while to get around to it, and there may be situations where they don't.)
Not that the difference amounts to much. If you had invested $10,000 each in VFIAX and VFINX on the day VFIAX was launched, today you would have more than quintupled your money in either of them. However, you'd have $52,802 in VFIAX and only $51,662 in VFINX, so with VFIAX... 23 years later... you'd have $140 more.
VFINX has been, essentially, superseded by VFIAX. The main interest in it is that when you are exploring backtests, e.g. in PortfolioVisualizer, it is "the right" one to use because it has more history. VFINX is closed to new investors. As far as I know, the only difference between it an VFIAX now is that it has a higher expense ratio. I can't think of any good reason to use VFINX, even if you could.
Also, if you hold VFINX, Vanguard will automatically convert it to VFIAX... eventually. (Sometimes it takes them a while to get around to it, and there may be situations where they don't.)
Not that the difference amounts to much. If you had invested $10,000 each in VFIAX and VFINX on the day VFIAX was launched, today you would have more than quintupled your money in either of them. However, you'd have $52,802 in VFIAX and only $51,662 in VFINX, so with VFIAX... 23 years later... you'd have $140 more.
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Beth123456
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Re: Which to select: VFINX or VFIAX
I realized my mistake after posting and I didn't know how to delete my original post. I accidentally posted it in "Personal Finance (Not Investors)" rather than "Personal Investments". Thank you for correcting this.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:59 pm Beth123456 - You had a duplicate post, which I've removed. The replies have been moved into this thread, which is in the Personal Investments forum (portfolio help).
(Thanks to the member who reported the post and provided a link to this thread.)
Thank you soooo much to everyone who responded. I read all of your posts and I realize I wrote the incorrect expense ratio. There's a BIG difference b/w .04% and .40% ! So, good news for me!
And yes, I will be buying VFIAX for all of the reasons you all have mentioned. And also because the other one is closed, yikes !
I am feeling very relieved that I am moving over to an all index fund portfolio with minimal funds. I was overwhelmed before so I am moving forward to a better situation now. Thanks, again!