To get the equivalent of a total stock market index, you'd need a lot of capital and would spend a lot on trading fees. There are other issues like re-investing

To get the equivalent of a total stock market index, you'd need a lot of capital and would spend a lot on trading fees. There are other issues like re-investing dividends, re-balancing, IPOs/bankruptcies, taxes, etc. Also, Vanguard is structured as a mutual company, so fees only pay for costs. The fees are really low too: a 10,000$ investment in VOO (S&P 500 ETF) would only cost you about 5$/year. I actually opened a Vanguard account a few months ago after reading "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton Gordon Malkiel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street). I recommend it if you are interested in learning more about investing and ETFs.