If you are happy for your mutual fund to propose and vote for politicalization of the company’s policies (which you might greatly disagree with), fine.
I am not talking about Vanguard’s company policies. I am talking about the policies advocated in ESG forced upon companies Vanguard, Blackrock, and State Street own.
If you are comfortable with mutual funds forcing companies whose stock they hold to require employees to take classes in, for instance, Critical Race Theory, don’t give it a thought.
Critical Race Theory
Are you sure that “CRT” is what they are being required to study?
Some people throw “CRT” around for any courses/learning about structural racism, or racism in general.
CRT is typically taught in upper university courses or law schools, NOT in K-12 schools, as people yelling loudly would have you think!
It reminds me of the satanic panic of the late 1980’s/early 1990s, where suddenly every day care facility was a coven of demons. All disproved. All ignorant panic. Real human damage.
Please cite your source that employees are being forced to take classes in actual CRT.
I’d really like to know where this is being done!
Thank you.
Nobody mentioned K-12 education. Why are you bringing it up?
Critical Race Baiting is the theoretical foundation behind mandatory employee DIE lectures. Having one race of employees admit their “guilt” to another race, ask for forgiveness, pledge to give up their jobs if a qualified member of another race presents wanting the job, ad nauseam. You can defend this racist indoctrination if you want, but politics are forbidden in this forum.
You might deny this happens, but listen to what employees describe the content of their DIE lectures. Raytheon supposedly had some of the worst. Actually DIE is yet one more big corporate shakedown racket. The presenters make healthy sums peddling this stuff. Some daughter and son-in-law of a famous politician was raking in millions on it.
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I regret that my original post has been high jacked. The last thing I want to hear are critical race conspiracy theories. Let’s move on, please.
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Threads sometime go off topic, but CONSPIRACY THEORY? I stated plain facts ma’m.
But back to your original question. I can’t understand the continued fascination with Vanguard. Have you tried to talk to a live human on the phone at Vanguard lately? Their customer service is the pits.
Fidelity has just as many or more choices, and is a lot easier to deal with. Their universe of commission-free trades is enormous. Consider these options, all free of purchasing costs:
Berkshire Hathaway, BRK.B for growth. Ever heard of Warren Buffet? That is his baby.
PFFA, a preferred stock ETF and using leverage, currently yielding about 10%.
AMLP, an ETF of pipeline partnerships without the K-1s, yielding over 7%
FSCO, a closed-end corporate bond fund, yielding over 10%. (But don’t forget to sell at the bottom of the interest rate cycle in a few years.)
You could hedge your bets with an energy company like VNOM, Shell or Chevron (which is on sale right now for some reason.) Petroleum is going to be with us for a long time. I would stay away from BP and Exxon, though.
With all the wars, defense contractors are bound to do well. One is Lockeed Martin.
If I could only own one stock, it would be Nestle (NSRGY). People always got to eat, and nobody is more careful with stockholder’s money than this Swiss Company.
But through the years, believe it or not, Microsoft has given my best return on investment.
So cut out the expensive middleman and be your own mutual fund manager using a discount broker. First thing you need to do is subscribe to an investment newsletter. The Oxford Income Letter is a good cheap one that is good for novices like you. Be careful about bad information you find on the internet.
I was told by a VG rep to call them on Friday, 6-7 EST. The large number of east coast investors are planning or on their weekend. Works for me.
Great, have to make arrangements to speak to them at a specific time. How convenient. Vanguard stinks. Only one worse is Ameriprise.
I was just offering a suggestion on how to reach them.
I noticed that Vanguard changed the requirement from $1M invested to $5M invested in order to qualify for Admiral service when they transferred mutual-fund accounts over to brokerage accounts.
They previously had an Admiral account phone number to call and they usually picked up before the third ring. I assume that’s long gone for now. I agree the service at Vanguard has lately gone to pot. Their CEO, hired in Jan 2018, reportedly makes between $15M and $25M annually.
I’ve noticed a similar degradation in customer service at USAA. Since they hired Wayne Peacock as their CEO in Feb 2020, paid him $1.9M in 2021 and upped it to $4.8 in 2022. I guess good customer service costs too much when you pay your CEO megabucks.
It is interesting that Vanguard remains a rapidly growing company growing. Assets in Vanguard funds increased from about 1 trillion in 2005 to 7.3 trillion in 2021 and to 8.1 trillion in 2022. I assume that Vanguard might be more responsive to service complaints if there were less inflow of dollars into Vanguard funds.
Clark says they are so big and offer such good products they don’t have to listen to their investor’s complaints. In business, all problems come with a cost/benefit equation. Some problems cost more to fix than the damage they are causing. That appears to be the case presently with Vanguard.
Things might change in the future, or they may not, who knows?
No tax on index funds until you redeem them. There is a VTSAX index fund.
Target Funds reallocate based on your age. Outside of a retirement account, this would result in a taxable event.
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There are dividends every quarter, as well as capital gains when the fund sells shares of something.
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My understanding is that Vanguard has been able to avoid having to distribute capital gains from internal sales of shares in some index mutual funds by setting up the ETF as a share class of the mutual fund. For example VTI, The Total Stock market Index ETF is a share class of VTSAX, the Total Stock Market Index Fund. This setup has enabled Vanguard to “flush” the mutual fund capital gains into the ETF. The link shows that Vanguard has not had any capital gains in VTSAX since they set up the arrangement in 2000.
I believe that Vanguards patent expires this year so perhaps other companies may be able to use the same process.