Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

Disclosure

  • Home
  • Your Survival
    • Special Report: FOOD SHORTAGE: Crazed Hoarding Is Not Preparing
    • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
    • Constitutional Carry
    • EMP Threat
    • Tucker Explains
    • Newport Gas Outage
    • Water
      • Emergency Water Storage
      • Let There Be Water
    • Get Your Gun and Your Training Now
    • Satellite Phones
    • Navy SEAL Survival Kit
  • Your Money
    • Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • Looking for a Better America
    • You Invest, They Win
    • Where to Keep Your Cash
    • Paris
    • How to Buy a Boat
    • Dead or Alive? The Future of Long-Term Investing
    • Is Vanguard too Big?
    • Cryptocosm and Life After Google
    • The Last Intelligence Report
    • The Truth Behind the S&P 500
    • RAGE Gauge
    • How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?
    • Your Retirement Life
    • You’ll Love This if You’re Dreaming of an Active Retirement Life
  • Weapons
    • Self Defense
    • Every Family Should Own at Least One Shotgun: Here Are Three
  • About Me
    • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
    • Preparing for Times Like These
    • My Videos/Pics
    • Music
      • RIP Neil Peart: You Will Always Be Remembered as a “Modern-Day Warrior”
    • Your Survival Guy: Make Your Bed and The Hero Code
  • You
    • Our Cabin on Kodiak, Alaska
    • If You Are in Pain, this May Help. It Helped Me.
    • How to Save for a Grandchild
    • FIRE! Financial Independence, Retire Early
    • Compound Interest
    • Arithmetic of Portfolio Losses
    • Maximum Portfolio Withdrawal Rate
    • An Efficient Frontier
    • Retirement Compounders
    • Counterbalanced Total Returns
  • Survive & Thrive
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • Welcome

Why Vanguard Is Too Big For You

If you want clear evidence of why Vanguard is too big, then look no further than the money flow into passive index funds. When investors are lulled to sleep by a bull market, they dream about things like early retirement, vacations, and second homes. What they tend to miss is that reversion to the mean is a fact of life. You can take my word for it and that of the father of index funds Jack Bogle.

Learn more about why Vanguard is too big for you below:

Vanguard Proving Why It’s Too Big, Yet Again

September 29, 2020 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Just when you think Vanguard might see the light and get back to its roots, it shows once again why it has become too big and is just like any other money-sucking behemoth--like BlackRock. Vanguard has proven this with the introduction of its own ESG investments program. In my series “You Invest, They Win,” I prove that you are not necessarily front and center, as you most certainly should be when it comes to how your money is invested. This is especially true with the new, hot, investment flavor-of-the-month, ESG. What is an ESG? It’s a marketing tool hoping to get you to feel good about … [Read more...]

Investors Facing Long-Awaited ETF Industry Shakeout

August 25, 2020 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

You have probably invested at some point in ETFs or ETNs. The exchange-traded investments have thrived for decades now as a lower-cost and more efficient alternative to mutual funds. But after years of huge fund companies issuing new ETFs and ETNs by just throwing products at the wall to see what stuck, the industry is shaking out. The Wall Street Journal reports that this year alone 188 exchange-traded products have been shut down. Michael Wursthorn writes: Asset managers have closed more exchange-traded products than they have launched this year, a sign of how market gyrations have … [Read more...]

Key Manager Retiring from Vanguard GNMA Fund

June 26, 2020 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

You read from Your Survival Guy back in June of 2017 that Michael F. Garrett might be one of the most important names in the fixed-income world today. He’s the portfolio manager of the Vanguard GNMA Fund, which is managed by Wellington. Unfortunately, as I have followed Garrett for some time, he is retiring. Garrett will be tough to replace, but there is a deep bench at Wellington. Even so, this is another reason for my concern about Vanguard being too big. Here's some more about Garrett's departure from CityWire.com back in May 2019: Veteran Wellington portfolio manager Michael F. … [Read more...]

Update! Why Vanguard is Too Big for YOU

May 19, 2020 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part XLIX A new client of mine is consolidating his eight-figure fortune with Fidelity. What’s shocking is how easily he decided to leave Vanguard. “Why?” I asked him. “E.J., I haven’t heard from anyone at Vanguard in over a year,” he said. “They’re letting a quarter of a hundred million dollars walk out the door,” I thought to myself. “The front door.” That is shocking. “I’ve read your father-in-law Dick Young for over 30-years,” he said. “I miss him.” “Welcome home,” I said. When the late Vanguard founder Jack Bogle released Bogle on … [Read more...]

Vanguard is Telling You the Problem with Indexing

September 24, 2019 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

If you want to understand the problem with index investing, then consider what the king of indexing is doing. Recently Vanguard announced its robo-only advisor service. If you signup for this, you will not speak with a live representative and you will not be allowed to invest in non-Vanguard funds. When you step back and consider all of the advertising Vanguard is doing for its actively managed funds the reason becomes crystal clear. I want you to pay attention here. Indexing or passive investing will destroy the wealth of the masses asleep at the wheel. You will not be one of them, I … [Read more...]

Your Retirement Life: Is Vanguard Throwing Caution to the Wind?

September 23, 2019 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

You may have read that Vanguard is moving into a digital robo-only service. My take? Well, first off, when you sign-up for Vanguard advisor services you’re only going to be offered Vanguard funds. You will not be investing in my preferred, dividend centric stock approach. You are treated like all of the other sheep loaded into the mutual fund pen. Second, I believe Vanguard is essentially throwing in the towel (they’d never admit it) about their index funds and the problem with how big they’ve become. Offering a robo-only service will be a backdoor way for Vanguard to steer investor … [Read more...]

This is Why Vanguard is Too Big

September 18, 2019 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

If you want clear evidence of why Vanguard is too big, then look no further than the money flow into passive index funds. When investors are lulled to sleep by a bull market, they dream about things like early retirement, vacations, and second homes. What they tend to miss is that reversion to the mean is a fact of life. You can take my word for it and that of the father of index funds Jack Bogle. Index funds, like those built based on the S&P 500, weight the shares of a small number of the biggest companies heavier than those of small companies. That's the ugly truth behind the S&P … [Read more...]

Why We Favor Laddering Bonds

December 21, 2018 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Yesterday I asked readers Do You Know this about Vanguard Wellington and Wellesley Funds? I explained that we have not soured on the funds, but that their effective maturities are longer than we'd like. I also wrote that at Young Research we recommend laddering bonds. One of the reasons we favor laddering bonds is to help strip-out interest rate risk. When you own a bond outright you have control over your holding period. Duration measures a bond’s sensitivity to interest rates. For example, a bond with a 15-year duration will decline by 15 percent with every one percent increase in … [Read more...]

Do You Know this about Vanguard Wellington and Wellesley Funds?

December 20, 2018 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

As you know our concerns about Vanguard continue to mount. Yesterday, a reader wrote: “[Dick] used to be big on Wellington and Wellesley, given their longevity and resistance to tail risk over time. Also, it seemed to me that Wellington Management's fixed income expertise would be an asset in this part of the cycle. I'm wondering why he has soured on these funds.” The quick answer is no we have not soured on Wellington and Wellesley with two distinctions. First, Vanguard has nothing to do with the management of Wellington and Wellesley. Vanguard has outsourced those management … [Read more...]

My Concerns as Money Piles Up at Vanguard

December 7, 2018 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Last week Vanguard founder Jack Bogle spoke out about the dangers of index funds, something he helped pioneer. Take a look back at this piece I posted on October 12, 2017 for more depth on the issue.  Let the good times roll? Great lyrics from the Cars but it’s a song I can’t get out of my head thinking about the money piling up by the truckload at Vanguard’s back door. We’re talking nearly $300 billion in the first nine months of this year alone. All of that money unloaded and stacked up with the rest of the $4.7 trillion at the firm. That’s a lot of confidence in one company. And maybe … [Read more...]

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »
Money 101

Trending

  • Survive and Thrive August 2022: “Watch This Boat off Our Stern,” My Dad Said “He’s Coming in HOT”
  • NO GO ZONES: The Wealthy Protected, the Rest Left to Rot
  • Here's Where Americans Want to Move
  • WATCH OUT: The IRS Made New Changes to Your IRA
  • 80 Year Old California Shop Owner Shoots Rifle-Wielding Intruder's Arm Off
  • DESANTIS RESISTS: Suspends Soros-Funded Destruction of America
  • WATER SECURITY: How to Save Rainwater Effectively
  • PRIMARY RESULTS: Pro-Trump Candidates Clean Up
  • New Secret Weapon is Like Dropping Anvils on Terrorists Heads
  • Record Breaking Slowdown in Housing Price Growth

Must Reads

  • Your Survival Guy’s 2022 Super States: #1 New Hampshire
  • Americans Fleeing High Tax States for Growth Corridors
  • Why Mutual Funds and ETFs No Longer Work
  • Your Survival Guy: Simple Prepping for Winter Storms
  • HELLO: “How’s It Going? I Don’t Know Anything”
  • Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Most People Can’t Handle Making Money This Way
  • Your Survival Guy: Emerging Food and Energy Crisis
  • Some Lessons You Just Can’t Get from a Textbook
  • How to Avoid Going Back to Work after Retirement
  • BLACKROCK’S BITCOIN-ESG PARADOX: You Can’t Have It All
Only if You’re Serious
Crazed Hoarding Is not Preparing
Your Survival Guy in Paris
Your Survival Guy's Fishing Stories
Financial Independence, Retire Early
Money 101
Pandemic Creates Virtual Panopticon
Emergency Water Storage
Key West Summer Camp in March
Find Freedom in America
Second Amendment
How Can You Save Money for Your Grandchild
Great Reset
See Who's Missing the Boat
Richard  Young Reports
How You Can Save Money for Your Grandchild
Why Fidelity is Number One
The Best States for Survival
You Invest, They Win
Escape the City
Why Vanguard is Too Big for YOU
Island Life

Copyright © 2022 | Terms & Conditions