The Independent Vanguard Adviser

The Independent Vanguard Adviser

Latest — Feb 1, 2023

One Step Forward, Many More to Go

Hello, this is Jeff DeMaso with the IVA Weekly Brief for Wednesday, February 1st. There are no changes recommended for any of our Portfolios. Both stock and bond markets got off on the right foot this year. Total World Stock Index (VTWAX) gained a tidy 7.5% in January while

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Starting on the Right Foot | February 2023

Well, that's more like it! After a trying 2022, both the stock and bond markets got off on the right foot in 2023. 500 Index (VFIAX) gained 6.3% in January. SmallCap Index (VSMAX) did even better, returning 10.1%. Foreign stocks continued to outpace U.S. stocks with Total

Proxy Pilot

Not cleared for takeoff. As previewed late last year, Vanguard is testing out how to give mutual fund shareholders more control when it comes to voting the proxy statements of the companies that are held by their funds. Well, today we got some more details on Vanguard's limited pilot program.

How Much Risk?

Vanguard’s newest bond fund, which opened for investment on Thursday, January 26th, isn’t as new as you think. A little over a year ago, Vanguard launched two active bond funds. Vanguard gave Core-Plus Bond (VCPIX) just two weeks to gather assets before building its portfolio while the other,

Out of the Oven

Vanguard has decided that after 15 months in the oven, Multi-Sector Income (VMSIX and VMSAX) is ready to eat. Vanguard seeded the global income fund with $25 million when they launched it in October 2021 but didn’t allow outside investors to participate—until now. Yesterday, I was scratching my

Big Tech in The Crosshairs

Hello, this is Jeff DeMaso with the IVA Weekly Brief for Wednesday, January 25th. There are no changes recommended for any of our Portfolios. Big tech companies are no longer untouchable. The Department of Justice is suing Google (known as Alphabet on Wall Street), alleging the search giant abuses monopoly

Growth Stocks Being Marked Down | (Large) Growth Funds

The cycle has turned. Long gone are the days when growth stocks sat in the U.S. market’s driver’s seat and the biggest of big stocks—think, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet)—delivered outsized returns. Over the past year, these former highflyers came back down

Weathering Government Shutdowns

With the U.S. government’s finances bumping up against the debt ceiling, I’m (not surprisingly) hearing from concerned investors on both sides of the political aisle asking what this means for our investments. First, we’ve been here before. And it’s important to recognized that we’ve

Vanguard’s Service Still Stagnant

Hello, this is Jeff DeMaso with the IVA Weekly Brief for Wednesday, January 18th. There are no changes recommended for any of our Portfolios. The phoenix is rising. And by that, I mean that, for an approach that was pronounced dead in 2022, the classic balanced portfolio of 60% stocks

Big Index Fund Fails?

The Morningstar headline grabbed me. “Why Are These Big Index Funds Underperforming?” By definition index funds, if they’re doing their jobs properly, don’t outperform or underperform. They simply match their benchmarks less a bit for their expenses. Generally, when talking about outperformance or underperformance it’s active funds