Vanguard is the company founded by Jack Bogle, one of the first, and arguably the biggest, proponents of a method of investing called index investing. The goal

Vanguard is the company founded by Jack Bogle, one of the first, and arguably the biggest, proponents of a method of investing called index investing. The goal is to match the aggregate performance of the market while paying the least amount of fees. Vanguard has a large selection of mutual funds[1] that match various stock market indexes[2]. Generally a mutual fund's value (called it's Net Asset Value or NAV) is calculated once at the end of each trading day. When you put money into a mutual fund, you buy at that price. An ETF[3] is a special type of mutual fund that is itself listed on a stock exchange. When you buy an ETF you're still buying a share of the underlying mutual fund, but the price changes throughout the trading day. The difference between the price you pay and the NAV of the underlying fund is called the premium (if you pay more than NAV) or discount (if you pay less). You don't have to call Vanguard if you want to open an individual, joint, or retirement account in the United States. You just go to their Open An Account page[4] and select which account you want to start. [1]: a company organized to aggregate many people's money and invest it in a particular way [2]: a list of companies that share some quality. For example, the "S&P 500" is a list of the 500 biggest publicly-traded companies in the United States. [3]: Exchange Traded Fund [4]: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/openaccount https://personal.vanguard.com/us/openaccount