7 ms·

Vanguard charges no fees for buying/selling their owns ETFs. I believe Schwab and others do as well.

meatbundragon 9y ago
While this is a great point, the casual segment of the customer base that is being discussed would certainly not have enough awareness of this fact. At the very least, I didn't even though I do trade ETFs and large cap stocks casually...
- AFNobody 9y ago
  I am sorry but "casual investors" should be doing long term buy and hold because if you can't be bothered to spend 30 minutes on research to compare brokerages, I am genuinely horrified at the idea of you doing anything other than buying and holding an index fund. Robinhood's encouragement of the instant gratification, poorly researched trades is going to end badly for many of it's customers when we enter a bear market.
  - meatbundragon 9y ago
    I disagree that investors' abilities to understand stocks and create portfolios should be judged by someone's willingness to find which individual brokerages offer free buy/sell of their own ETFs.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
wgerard 9y ago
True! That being said, using the Vanguard website is... significantly different from using the RH app.
- dguo 9y ago
  The Vanguard website/experience is definitely not that user-friendly/modern. That's the main reason I usually recommend Betterment to my friends instead.
  - dlp211 9y ago
    Betterment, where you pay an extra quarter percent to buy Vanguard funds.
    - dguo 9y ago
      That's better than the alternative of not investing at all because Vanguard is not user-friendly. And I know that's possible because I have friends who were in that situation. If you sign up with Vanguard, you still have to pick which fund(s) to buy. If you don't know anything about investing, that can be a daunting task. With Betterment, the only decision you have to make is the percentage split for stocks vs. bonds.
      - btmorex 9y ago
        Isn't that why Vanguard has their Total Stock Market and Total Bond Market funds? Basically, they're the "invest in these if you don't want to bother" funds.
        mcintyre1994 9y ago
        They also have LifeStrategy 0/20/40/60/80/100 so you can balance stocks vs bonds however you want, and have diversification handled for you.
        TorKlingberg 9y ago
        I think the numbered LifeStrategy funds are only a UK (GBP) thing. Am I wrong?
        9y ago
- jurassic 9y ago
  The Vanguard web experience isn't great, I agree. But if you set up a recurring automated purchase you rarely need to log in and mess with it. Set it and forget it. Viewed another way, I would say the Vanguard fund costs are low for a reason. It seems unfair to expect a Mercedes experience for a Honda worth of expense ratio.
- wils1245 9y ago
  How much are you willing to spend on a nice user interface? The whole point of passive investing is that you rarely interact with your account. Even a slight difference in fees is worth thousands in the long run.
vasilipupkin 9y ago
Their own ETFs - yes. But still a fee to buy other ETFs that aren't their own.

While this is a great point, the casual segment of the customer base that is being discussed would certainly not have enough awareness of this fact. At the very least, I didn't even though I do trade ETFs and large cap stocks casually...

AFNobody 9y ago
I am sorry but "casual investors" should be doing long term buy and hold because if you can't be bothered to spend 30 minutes on research to compare brokerages, I am genuinely horrified at the idea of you doing anything other than buying and holding an index fund. Robinhood's encouragement of the instant gratification, poorly researched trades is going to end badly for many of it's customers when we enter a bear market.
- meatbundragon 9y ago
  I disagree that investors' abilities to understand stocks and create portfolios should be judged by someone's willingness to find which individual brokerages offer free buy/sell of their own ETFs.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

wgerard 9y ago

True! That being said, using the Vanguard website is... significantly different from using the RH app.

dguo 9y ago
The Vanguard website/experience is definitely not that user-friendly/modern. That's the main reason I usually recommend Betterment to my friends instead.
- dlp211 9y ago
  Betterment, where you pay an extra quarter percent to buy Vanguard funds.
  - dguo 9y ago
    That's better than the alternative of not investing at all because Vanguard is not user-friendly. And I know that's possible because I have friends who were in that situation. If you sign up with Vanguard, you still have to pick which fund(s) to buy. If you don't know anything about investing, that can be a daunting task. With Betterment, the only decision you have to make is the percentage split for stocks vs. bonds.
    - btmorex 9y ago
      Isn't that why Vanguard has their Total Stock Market and Total Bond Market funds? Basically, they're the "invest in these if you don't want to bother" funds.
      - mcintyre1994 9y ago
        They also have LifeStrategy 0/20/40/60/80/100 so you can balance stocks vs bonds however you want, and have diversification handled for you.
        TorKlingberg 9y ago
        I think the numbered LifeStrategy funds are only a UK (GBP) thing. Am I wrong?
        9y ago
jurassic 9y ago
The Vanguard web experience isn't great, I agree. But if you set up a recurring automated purchase you rarely need to log in and mess with it. Set it and forget it. Viewed another way, I would say the Vanguard fund costs are low for a reason. It seems unfair to expect a Mercedes experience for a Honda worth of expense ratio.
wils1245 9y ago
How much are you willing to spend on a nice user interface? The whole point of passive investing is that you rarely interact with your account. Even a slight difference in fees is worth thousands in the long run.

vasilipupkin 9y ago

Their own ETFs - yes. But still a fee to buy other ETFs that aren't their own.