Automatic Investments at Vanguard - Fund vs ETF

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69XR7
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:15 pm

Automatic Investments at Vanguard - Fund vs ETF

Post by 69XR7 »

For many years I've had an automatic weekly investment set up to purchase VTSAX. I see that I can do the same with VTI.

Near as I can tell, if I have Vanguard convert my VTSAX to VTI and I change my weekly buy to VTI, I'll be no better/worse off other than lowering my ER by .01%

Any reason not to do this?
livesoft
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Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:00 pm

Re: Automatic Investments at Vanguard - Fund vs ETF

Post by livesoft »

I am a reasonably competent investor with many years of using ETFs at other brokerages. I have been a Vanguard customer since 1982 and have used their mutual funds for decades. In order to be able to answer questions like yours I have done some experiments with buying and selling ETFs at Vanguard. I can categorically state that Vanguard sucks when it comes to ETF transactions. The Vanguard brokerage and its website are not ready for prime time when it comes to updating in real time what is going on which is quite the contrast to other brokerages that I am extremely familiar with such as WellsTrade, Fidelity, Schwab, TDAmeritrade. There are other problems beyond that as well.

Avoid heartaches & headaches if you must use Vanguard ETFs: Do not use Vanguard as a brokerage. Instead use another better brokerage. If you must use Vanguard mutual funds, then Vanguard is a great financial institution for that. Vanguard has mutual funds in its DNA, but Vanguard brokerage is bordering on clueless when it comes to ETF transactions. Sure, Vanguard sponsors great ETFs, but it is better to use competent brokerages with Vanguard ETFs and not Vanguard itself.
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sycamore
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Re: Automatic Investments at Vanguard - Fund vs ETF

Post by sycamore »

There's a list of pros and cons in the Bogleheads wiki article ETFs vs mutual funds. Read it over. See if there's anything that you would experience in a sufficiently negative way that you would end up regretting the use of ETFs.
jdibber
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon May 22, 2017 5:32 pm

Re: Automatic Investments at Vanguard - Fund vs ETF

Post by jdibber »

I'll second livesoft.

No reason to buy an MF if its available in an ETF. MFs will be going, or are going, the way of the dodo.
"I order the food, you cook the food. Then the customer gets the food. We do that for 40 years, and then we die." -Squidward S3E2
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