On: The ABCs of Personal Finance (2014)

[andrewvc]

There's no reason for the average investor to trade ETFs at all when no load mutual funds exist. You can use vanguard directly or etrade (or a billion other companies) for that.

[junar → andrewvc]

Actually, ETFs do have advantages. Vanguard recently lowered expense ratios on their ETFs, but not on the corresponding mutual funds.

https://investornews.vanguard/lower-expense-ratios-on-21-van...

For non-Vanguard funds, ETFs are generally more tax efficient than mutual funds because they can avoid capital gains distributions in ETFs, but not in mutual funds. Vanguard has a patent on the mutual fund method.

[bradly → andrewvc]

There are minimums investment amounts on many mutual funds include the Vanguard ones which are most popular with personal finance investors. ETFs don't have minimums allowing for more home investor participation, especially from those new to investing or personal finance.

[loeg → andrewvc]

1. Capital gains reduction, anywhere other than Vanguard (who has exclusive patent on treating mutual funds as an ETF share class),

2. Intra-day trading has some value to some people, and

3. As others have pointed out, fees can be lower for the same dollar investment.

[throw0101a → andrewvc]

You're not wrong, but with mutual funds you may be stuck with dealing with whatever offerings your employer-sponsored plan has to offer.

ETFs are available from any place that has access to the stock market.

[astura → throw0101a]

My employer-sponsored plan doesn't offer any ETFs.

[lotsofpulp → andrewvc]

What’s the difference for an average inventor between buying VTI and VTSAX?