Vanguard ETF Portfolio Update

September was a challenging month for stocks worldwide but if you’re investing for the long term and you’re focusing on increasing your dividend income then it really shouldn’t be a problem. Actually you should be smiling more as companies will be cheaper to buy. The stock market is really the only place of commerce where people see discounts and run out the door. It’s like going into the grocery store and seeing milk discounted by ten percent and then leaving!

I didn’t add any extra money outside of the Auto-Invest amount this month which was $288. So I automatically bought one of each of the Vanguard ETFs that I’m invested in. The total amount of my portfolio is $1,848 which is a 17.9 percent increase on last month. Eighteen percent for the month sounds great but I’m starting from a very low base and it only increased because I added money to the account. The index portfolio increased by about $281 while I added $288 so I’m actually down $7.

If I had to make a suggestion to Vanguard Australia (I don’t know if the US version does the same) I would say make the performance of your stocks clearer. Are they losing money or are you in front? Sure you can check what you paid and then calculate it for yourself but why should I have to get a calculator out to see how I’m doing?

Vanguard does have “statements” which I’m assuming will give more details but why should I have to wait for a statement? I couldn’t even find out how often statements are sent out. It’s not monthly as I have had my account for more than a month and I still haven’t received one yet. So I’m assuming Vanguard statements will be sent out quarterly, sometime after dividends are paid out.

Auto-Invest Adjustments for the Portfolio

This is only my second month using the Vanguard Australia website so I’m still learning my way around. I started with an auto-invest amount of $288 which brought one each of the following stocks: VHY which is a high dividend index of Australian stocks, VBLD which is an international ETF of infrastructure stocks and VGS which is an index of international companies. I want about 40% in VHY, 20% VBLD and 40% in VGS.

So I have increased my auto investment amount from $288 to $338 per month. I set it up to invest $150 into VHY, $120 into VGS and $68 into VBLD. I’m happy with that mix for now.

First Month Investing in Index Funds

The Vanguard website is very simplistic compared to an online brokerage account with one of the big banks. I’m guessing it’s by design though as their customers are looking for simplicity and a boring way to invest. So I’m not complaining but a few bells and whistles wouldn’t hurt.

I’m happy overall and look forward to growing this portfolio every month. If I could increase it by 18% every month for a few years I would get rich very quickly! That percentage will decrease as the total amount of the portfolio increases and the new money that I add becomes less of a percentage of the whole.

As I mentioned in my previous Portfolio update, I will still remain focused on my main portfolio of individual stocks outside of Vanguard for the foreseeable future as I enjoy looking into stocks and I’m happy with my performance.

Also I still have two other ETFs held in my brokerage account. I was thinking about selling them and just adding the money to my Vanguard account but I have decided to keep them. I have $1,545 worth of VAS from Vanguard (Australian index fund) and $2,032 worth of IVV from iShares (S&P 500 Index).

I’ve had people ask me how to get started with stocks and I always say low cost ETFs. Then they’ll often ask which ones I’m invested in and I used to say none! Obviously nobody was listening as I wasn’t following my own advice. I was telling them to jump into the water while I was staying on shore with dry feet. So I’m sure they thought the reason I wasn’t jumping in was because I thought there were sharks in the water.

Now I can say come on in, the water is lovely. I own VHY, VAS (yes they overlap quite a bit), VGS, VBLD and IVV but I recommend that you do your own research and choose your own ETFs. Get started NOW though or you’ll remain a cockroach forever.

Total ETF + Index Funds Portfolio for October

Portfolio value inside the Vanguard website: $1,848
ETFs outside of Vanguard: $3,577
Total Index Funds portfolio value: $5,425