Comparison Vanguards Life strategy (VLS) vs S&P 500 your opinion please!!

tebbins

dunstonh said:

Comparing VLS to an S&P500 tracker is like comparing apples and a fruit basket.  Nobody with any investment knowledge would be comparing them as that would be totally pointless.

One is a global tracker that slightly upweights the UK, one is a US tracker... How are they not comparable and surely you would compare them in the sense of making an investment decision?

dunstonh

tebbins said:

dunstonh said:

Comparing VLS to an S&P500 tracker is like comparing apples and a fruit basket.  Nobody with any investment knowledge would be comparing them as that would be totally pointless.

One is a global tracker that slightly upweights the UK, one is a US tracker... How are they not comparable and surely you would compare them in the sense of making an investment decision?

One is a managed fund investing across the global markets, which includes exposure to US equity.  The other is only US equity and a focused part of it.  

The two funds are typically held in portfolios with different strategies.   i.e. VLS100 being a single held fund and S&P500 being part of a wider portfolio of single sector funds.   You wouldn't hold an S&P500 tracker by itself.   Much the same as you wouldn't hold a FTSE100 tracker by its self (referring to your other thread).

IanManc

tebbins said:

dunstonh said:

Comparing VLS to an S&P500 tracker is like comparing apples and a fruit basket.  Nobody with any investment knowledge would be comparing them as that would be totally pointless.

One is a global tracker that slightly upweights the UK, one is a US tracker... How are they not comparable and surely you would compare them in the sense of making an investment decision?

One is a fettered fund of funds (not a tracker) where a management decision has been taken by the fund provider to overweight from the Global All Cap Index percentage UK element of 4.1% to a UK element of 25.2% in Lifestrategy 100 - so somewhat more than "slightly" upweighting; whereas the other actually is a tracker which follows an index of 500 US listed companies, which is a made up of a portion of the 3942 listed companies which are in the US All Cap Index.

tebbins

IanManc said:

tebbins said:

dunstonh said:

Comparing VLS to an S&P500 tracker is like comparing apples and a fruit basket.  Nobody with any investment knowledge would be comparing them as that would be totally pointless.

One is a global tracker that slightly upweights the UK, one is a US tracker... How are they not comparable and surely you would compare them in the sense of making an investment decision?

One is a fettered fund of funds (not a tracker) where a management decision has been taken by the fund provider to overweight from the Global All Cap Index percentage UK element of 4.1% to a UK element of 25.2% in Lifestrategy 100 - so somewhat more than "slightly" upweighting; whereas the other actually is a tracker which follows an index of 500 US listed companies, which is a made up of a portion of the 3942 listed companies which are in the US All Cap Index.

I know... They are different funds, what's your point? What's wrong with this forum, a lot of people like to manufacture drama out of nothing

[Deleted User]

dunstonh said:

The two funds are typically held in portfolios with different strategies.   i.e. VLS100 being a single held fund and S&P500 being part of a wider portfolio of single sector funds.   You wouldn't hold an S&P500 tracker by itself.   Much the same as you wouldn't hold a FTSE100 tracker by its self (referring to your other thread).

Plenty of people hold S&P500 as a single fund. Warren Buffett has famously said he wants almost the entirety of his estate placed in it after he dies (90% S&P500 and 10% bonds).

Beyond that, I can't see much point to your contributions in this thread. You seem to be primarily motivated by the desire to prove the OP is an idiot for the sake of it. VLS and S&P500 are indeed different, but when people are comparing Vanguard funds to invest in they are, unsurprisingly, going to end up comparing funds that are different.

Generally speaking, if people are unsure about a topic it's always a good idea to give them advice rather than scoffing at their apparent lack of knowledge. The OP presumably started this thread with the (naive) hope they might get some useful information. It wasn't an invitation to belittle them for your own amusement.

Thrugelmir

Deleted_User said:

dunstonh said:

The two funds are typically held in portfolios with different strategies.   i.e. VLS100 being a single held fund and S&P500 being part of a wider portfolio of single sector funds.   You wouldn't hold an S&P500 tracker by itself.   Much the same as you wouldn't hold a FTSE100 tracker by its self (referring to your other thread).

Plenty of people hold S&P500 as a single fund. Warren Buffett has famously said he wants almost the entirety of his estate placed in it after he dies (90% S&P500 and 10% bonds).

When quoting other people the comments they always need to be viewed in their original context.  As over time that's how investment myths and mantra's evolve.  As word of mouth changes the message and enhances the lack of understanding. 

tebbins

Thrugelmir said:

Deleted_User said:

dunstonh said:

The two funds are typically held in portfolios with different strategies.   i.e. VLS100 being a single held fund and S&P500 being part of a wider portfolio of single sector funds.   You wouldn't hold an S&P500 tracker by itself.   Much the same as you wouldn't hold a FTSE100 tracker by its self (referring to your other thread).

Plenty of people hold S&P500 as a single fund. Warren Buffett has famously said he wants almost the entirety of his estate placed in it after he dies (90% S&P500 and 10% bonds).

When quoting other people the comments they always need to be viewed in their original context.  As over time that's how investment myths and mantra's evolve.  As word of mouth changes the message and enhances the lack of understanding. 

If you follow the Buffett/Bogle index-fund wisdom, it is eternal (unless you're in Russia in 1917 or something silly like that, in which case keeping your wealth is probably concurrent with getting it out the country). That quote is still true.

dunstonh

Plenty of people hold S&P500 as a single fund. Warren Buffett has famously said he wants almost the entirety of his estate placed in it after he dies (90% S&P500 and 10% bonds).

Said to an audience of US investors.   Not said to an audience of UK investors.  US taxation is different to UK and we also have exchange rates to consider.  US investors are also less global in their investing than Europeans.

Anyone from the UK holding S&P500 as a single investment fund is investing in a poor quality way.

jimjames

tebbins said:

Thrugelmir said:

Deleted_User said:

dunstonh said:

The two funds are typically held in portfolios with different strategies.   i.e. VLS100 being a single held fund and S&P500 being part of a wider portfolio of single sector funds.   You wouldn't hold an S&P500 tracker by itself.   Much the same as you wouldn't hold a FTSE100 tracker by its self (referring to your other thread).

Plenty of people hold S&P500 as a single fund. Warren Buffett has famously said he wants almost the entirety of his estate placed in it after he dies (90% S&P500 and 10% bonds).

When quoting other people the comments they always need to be viewed in their original context.  As over time that's how investment myths and mantra's evolve.  As word of mouth changes the message and enhances the lack of understanding. 

If you follow the Buffett/Bogle index-fund wisdom, it is eternal (unless you're in Russia in 1917 or something silly like that, in which case keeping your wealth is probably concurrent with getting it out the country). That quote is still true.

Where does Buffett live though?

ColdIron

Deleted_User said:

dunstonh said:

The two funds are typically held in portfolios with different strategies.   i.e. VLS100 being a single held fund and S&P500 being part of a wider portfolio of single sector funds.   You wouldn't hold an S&P500 tracker by itself.   Much the same as you wouldn't hold a FTSE100 tracker by its self (referring to your other thread).

Warren Buffett has famously said he wants almost the entirety of his estate placed in it after he dies (90% S&P500 and 10% bonds).

Good advice if you are an octogenarian living in the US with more money than you could possibly spend