Hey Guys, Ben here from Motivation 2 Invest
I’ve had a number of requests asking Ben, What is the best investment strategy for beginners??
So in this video I’m going to reveal my top 5 Index Funds and WHY investing in those can be the greatest investment strategy for you guys!!
LETS dive in!
What are Index funds?
An Index fund is basically a basket of stocks which tracks a particular INDEX or segment of the stock market.
For example, the S&P 500 is an index which tracks the top 500 largest market cap companies in the USA.
What are the benefits of Index Fund investing?
Index funds are one of the greatest ways to invest in the stock market as they are EASY, PASSIVE, LOW COST and OFFER INSTANT DIVERISFICATION to a wide range of companies with one single investment!
They are also average a consistent great performance, for example the S&P 500 has returned an approximate 10% return over the past 90 years.
Despite all the multiple dips and stock market crashes through this time!
From the Great Depression in the 1930’s to the dot com bubble in the early 2000’s and even the financial crisis in 2008.
INDEX FUNDS vs Actively Managed Funds?
Actively Managed funds are those funds where you pay a fee for your investment broker to invest & rebalance your portfolio regularly.
Although this may seem like a great option to improve your stock market returns. The Majority of these Actively Managed Funds actually don’t beat the stock market and thus INDEX FUNDS!
These actively managed funds take approximately 0.75% per year, so if you have $10,000 or £10,000 invested if your in the UK they will take approximately £75 or dollars per year.
It may not seem a lot at first but these fees compound with time.
Also as they take 0.75% of your whole PORTFOLIO amount this actually works out at 7.5% of your earnings per year!! Which is a lot!
Compared to index funds, these have an average expense ratio of just 0.08% per year, which is approximately 10 times cheaper!!
Now I’ve explained to you the benefits of index fund investing lets dive into my TOP 5 INDEX FUNDS!
5. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)
First on my list is one of my favorite index funds which is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)
(Talk through it’s 52 week low and high, expense ratio, year to date returns, DIVIDEND YIELD and WITH AN EXPENSE RATIO of Just 0.03% this is one of the lowest cost S&P 500 index funds.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/VOO?p=VOO&.tsrc=fin-srch
Due to the recent health crisis and thus stock market crash the year to date return for this fund is currently -10.56% .
However, looking at the past performance of the fund over the past 5 years. We can see it has an average return of 9.08% per year.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/VOO/performance?p=VOO
You can see that the fund has made profits during most the years, shown by the green bars. With only 2018 and 2020 currently down.
The year of 2019 achieving over a 30% return that year!
LOOKING at the sector weightings we can see it’s heavily focused in the consumer cyclicals.
It’s top 10 holdings include the Large tech giants such as Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet the Parent company of google in addition to BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY Warrens buffets incredibly successful investment firm!
Coincidentally Warren Buffett personally recommended this fund due to it’s great performance and extremely low expense ratio of just 0.03% for example,
For every $10,000 it costs you just $3 in fees. This makes it an ideally fund to hold for the long term.
4. SPDF S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
The Next fund on my list is the SPDF S&P 500 ETF (SPY).
SPY is a heavily traded ETF it was formed back in 1993 as the first public ally listed ETF if the USA.
The main difference between this and the previously mentioned funds is that it tracks the S&P 500 in REAL TIME!
However, for this increased Accuracy you do pay a slightly higher expense ratio of 0.09%.
3. SCHWAB US DIVIDEND ETF (SCHD)
Next on my list is the SCHWAB US DIVDEND ETF (SCHD), this is the ideal index fund if you’re an investor who wants that passive DIVIDEND INCOME which comes from reliable dividend stocks.
With this type of index fund, you can choose to have the dividends paid directly into your bank account or reinvest them for more growth.
This index funds tracks the DOW JONES US DIVIDEND 100 INDEX. Which is a collection of the 100 of the most reliable and best paying dividend stocks in the US Stock market.
(Go through details, on yahoo finance)
2. Vanguard FTSE 100 ETF
Next on my LIST is the Vanguard FTSE 100 ETF, this tracks the U.K FTSE 100 which is the top 100 largest companies in the U.K.
This fund is great because it offers you exposure to the U.K stock market and is massively undervalued compared to the S&P 500 index funds.
(CAPE ratio)
I did a full video analyzing the FTSE 100 INDEX so check that out on the link below.
1. VANGUARD LIFE STRATEGY FUNDS
Next on my list is the VANGUARD LIFE STRATEGY which compile together a selection of the INDEX funds mentioned previously to give you one SUPER INDEX FUND which is diversified INTERNATIONALLY.
This is great for beginner and very long term investors.
They come in a variety of options dependent upon your risk tolerance,
From the VANGUARD LIFE STRATEGY 20% equity fund which has just 20% in stocks and the rest in safe and reliable bonds. TO the Vanguard 50% and of course the Vanguard 100% equity fund which contains 100% stocks, which of course means higher returns but also higher volatility.
This 100% equity fund has arguably one the lowest on going charges I’ve ever seen just 0.22%…Which is incredible low!
Disadvantages?
Some disadvantages of this portfolio include the in ability to customize the portfolio and thus rebalance your portfolio to buy more or less in certain markets.
The fund also has a large weighting towards LARGE MARKET CAP STOCKS which is great for stability but history has suggested that MID CAP STOCKS USUALLY OUTPERFORM THESE DUE TO THE HIGH GROWTH POTENTIAL!
I will be doing a full video on the various Life strategy funds soon so be sure to check that out.
FINAL THOUGHTS?
Overall, whichever investing strategy you use depends upon your budget, risk tolerance and investing goals.
However, I do believe that every portfolio can benefit from some investment into INDEX FUNDS.
As an example, I’m more of a higher growth investor thus I have a large portion of my portfolio in individual stocks.
My portfolio is currently 50% INDEX FUNDS and 50% Stocks.
However, my stock selection is split between over 30 stocks which is well diversified.
I plan to re balance my portfolio in the future to 60% INDEX FUNDS and 40% in less than 10 REALLY EXCEPTIONAL STOCKS.
