Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I want to take about $2,000 out of my savings account (which has $12,000) and try to make a little more money. I keep reading that index funds are a good way to go. This is for short term investing. I'd like to eventually have a few thousand to put towards a house. I know nothing about investing. Are Vanguard Index Funds good for this purpose? Which one would I buy? I've done research but I keep finding so much conflicting information that I just don't know where to go from here. Please help!
Investing in stocks or mutual funds implies risk. Markets go down as well as up. If you are dtermined I would lean to a high dividend stck like cigarettes or a utility. 5% a year.
I've always liked the Vanguard Wellington fund- though its not an ETF. The Vanguard Star fund is a good fund for young people that want to start investing in mutual funds. The Star fund is very conservative.
I agree with tomfar regarding bogleheads.org. You will gain valuable information there regarding Vanguard.
I've always liked the Vanguard Wellington fund- though its not an ETF. The Vanguard Star fund is a good fund for young people that want to start investing in mutual funds. The Star fund is very conservative.
I agree with tomfar regarding bogleheads.org. You will gain valuable information there regarding Vanguard.
-Cheers.
Those are both good funds, but they are not appropriate vehicles for saving for a home.
I want to take about $2,000 out of my savings account (which has $12,000) and try to make a little more money. I keep reading that index funds are a good way to go. This is for short term investing. I'd like to eventually have a few thousand to put towards a house. I know nothing about investing. Are Vanguard Index Funds good for this purpose? Which one would I buy? I've done research but I keep finding so much conflicting information that I just don't know where to go from here. Please help!
Your next step up on the risk spectrum would be a short term bond fund. These funds can lose money, so they are not risk free. But they are much less risky than a fund that invests in stocks.
You won't get exciting long term returns in either of these funds, annual retuns will probaby average in the 2% to 5% range over the next 5 years, but it's not out of the question that returns could be lower.
I agree with mysticaltyger on the bond index funds. I have VBMFX (Total Bond Market Index Fund). This fund lost money in 2008 when everything crashed, but it recovered very quickly, as did VFSTX. So if you can resist the urge to panic and sell during that type of crisis, you could be OK with this type of fund. If you have one of these funds you can just choose to reinvest the dividends.
I've got my eye on VBLTX, a long-term bond index fund (I'm pretty risk tolerant and this yields more than the others) but all of these investment-grade bond funds are at historic highs these days and I'm waiting for interest rates to rise (or something else to bring down the price) before buying in.
Last edited by Ellise; 10-29-2011 at 08:58 AM..
Reason: corrected error
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
