Docteur,
I did a quick comparison between the vanguard funds and equivalent IFA funds. For the large cap funds IFA had smaller expense ratios with lesser returns than Vanguard. For small caps IFA had much higher expense ratios than vangaurd but a higher return. I agree vanguard funds are not the cheapest index funds available. But I found IFA funds expensive too. For instance Spartan’s S&P500 fund had only 0.07% expense ratio as against vanguard 0.18% or IFA’s 0.15%. Am I missing something here? Also the index growth both websites quoted for the same indices were different. Is there any specific reason you chose IFA over Vanguard?
Powayseller mentioned that the vanguard money market can contain GSEs. I have some money in Vanguard’s CA tax exempt money market. I get slightly better returns here than from the T-Bills that treasurydirect offers (after tax considerations). But if they have exposure to the GSEs, I would prefer to move them over. The Vanguard prospectus said that the fund contains mainly california municipal securities. Their holdings also does’nt explicitly state GSEs or related derivatives / MBSs. How do I recognize these in any fund’s holdings?
Thanks in advance,
SDBear
