Approximating total stock market

Investors wishing to invest in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund often face a situation where they have to approximate it with the funds available in their employer sponsored plans and quite possibly some other funds available in other accounts such as a Roth IRA.

This page shows a few examples of approximating Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund with funds covering specific parts of the market.

Examples

 * These percentages were computed on Aug 16, 2008, except where otherwise noted.
 * The style box numbers were computed by Morningstar Instant XRay.
 * Computation was done by the method of least squares.
 * Investors contemplating on using an S&P MidCap 400 fund, for example, may consider the example above that uses IJH. However, there may be slight implementation differences between the S&P MidCap 400 fund you have access to and IJH.
 * Two funds may appear to track the same portion of the market (say, mid-cap), but their holdings may differ depending on the indexes they track.