The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund MUTF: VTSAX or the Fidelity Total Market Index Fund MUTF: That is the question Shakespeare's Hamlet might have pondered had he wanted to put his money in a low cost index fund. It's the same question I asked myself over and over again before I started a new challenge I labeled Millionaire Journey with VTSAX. I guess you can tell Vanguard won the battle as it's not called Millionaire Journey with FSTVX.

Don't get me wrong, I love Fidelity, but the book The Simple Path to Wealth inspired me to open an account with Vanguard and invest this personal challenge with them instead. Let's be clear - until the end ofI didn't know much about Vanguard. On the contrary, Fidelity and I go back a long way. I first opened an account in and have been a happy customer ever since.

They have a long list of great mutual funds, and as a part time trader I enjoy using their platform, Active Trader Pro.

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In addition, their customer service is arguably the best in the business, and their user friendly website is For nearly 25 years I slept well knowing Fidelity was and still is a trusted financial company with over 70 years in business.

But, as my mother used to say, " pennies make the dollar. After doing a side-by-side comparison of Vanguard VTSAX vs. Fidelity FSTVX, I came to the conclusion that if I were to do this Millionaire Journey with Fidelity instead of Vanguard, I would lose out on a lot of pennies in the long run. If you take a look at the comparison chart below you will see that Vanguard beats out Fidelity on all fronts except 2: That's infinitesimal when you are talking about a small account.

Why Vanguard Total Stock Market isn’t the best fund in the fleet - MarketWatch

Even though the chart shows a. Click here to see Fidelity's expense ratio from their website. So the real difference is.

VTI - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares ETF Quote - rehojuvuyequ.web.fc2.com

There is a substantial difference between Vanguard VTSAX and Fidelity FSTVX. Fidelity wins by a whopping 2. But let's look at when these index funds actually began. Vanguard's VTSAX began on November 13,or days after the dot com bubble started to burst.

The 4 Best Total Market Index Funds | Investopedia

Then, less than a year after its inception, we had September 11, which caused a big draw down on the world markets. If there was ever a bad time to start an index fund, Vanguard pretty much nailed it. Now let's look at the since inception of Fidelity's FSTVX, which started on October 14, - right around the time we were riding the real estate bubble.

We didn't see a major correction for 3 years after Fidelity's fund began. That is just enough time to build a stronger percentage from a "since inception" standpoint. So, if you had invested on their respective inception dates, Fidelity is the clear winner. However, the past is over and that percentage win between inception no longer applies to anyone, including my Millionaire Journey, because those numbers factor in 2 entirely different points in the world economy.

Nonetheless, I gave Fidelity the win on since inception.

Binary option otc Vanguard's Comparison Tool. Differences of Average Annual Returns. Now let's look at the second piece of the puzzle. If you look below, Vanguard forex sinyal forum across the board on the 1, 3, 5 and 10 year annual return.

Furthermore, over a 10 year period, there is a significant nearly. How to make an excel spreadsheet to track expenses is huge, especially if that number stays consistent over longer time frames. In my opinion, that is a big win for Vanguard and the VTSAX fund.

Then let's use the 10 year averages from the total return - after taxes - on distribution and sale of fund shares row. As you can see, Vanguard is a BIG WINNER in just a 10 year period.

Those numbers are too significant to ignore and a game changer in my overall decision making, but let's move on to see if we can find a little redemption for Fidelity.

Once again, the since inception row shows Fidelity is the clear winner. But since we discovered above why there is a bigger difference between the since inception percentages, we will give Fidelity their 1 win and leave it at that. Now the third piece of the puzzle is a bit more interesting and subjective. In my opinion, Vanguard wins on all fronts except one, or possibly two if you like foreign holdings.

However, before we break down what that means, let's take a look at their respective top 10 holdings first. It appears that they are more or less similar, with slight differences in holding percentages, except for one personal caveat. Fidelity holds Wells Fargo NYSE: WFC as the 10th of the top 10 holdings. That might be good for some, and I would be willing to bet that if we were looking at Vanguard's top 20 holdings, Wells Fargo would be somewhere between 11 and Regardless, let me point out a few euro rates in pk we recently learned about Wells Fargo.

With that said, I will not bash Wells Fargo because I still have a few accounts with them today. However, I do subway franchises make money consider switching banks as their mishap bothered me more than I care to admit.

At any rate, that is my personal feeling and subjective opinion. I emailed Vanguard about the big difference between the earnings growth percentages and here is what they wrote. Ultimately you have to decide if you like foreign holdings or not. I looked at it public bank forex rate a small mark against Fidelity because I don't know what's going on in the rest of the world.

I can barely figure out what is going on in my own country. In essence, I didn't care for the increase in the percentage of foreign holdings. On the other hand, it could be argued that a little foreign exposure was good enough to give Fidelity the point.

You have to decide, but I ruled in favor of Vanguard. Last, and not surprisingly, Vanguard is a much larger fund, which puts it in the winner's column once again. The numbers above don't lie. In fact, those numbers tell us a very important story: Investing with Vanguard's VTSAX will put you on the path to wealth quicker than Fidelity's FSTVX. It's also important to note that when I tried to do the same comparison on Fidelity's site I was met with the following message:.

Then, when I contacted Fidelity via their chat service, a representative told me this. Regardless, when I finished reading and reviewing the book The Simple Path to WealthI knew I couldn't turn a blind eye to the differences between the two very comparable funds, even though I am a Fidelity fan. Until a couple of months ago I had never considered opening a Vanguard account. However, in the side-by-side comparison, VTSAX beat out FSTVX on almost every point.

If you were keeping score like I did herethe final was:. I can't deny that I wanted Fidelity to win, even if it was due to investor's malaise. If you think about it, I would have had an easier start to my new Millionaire Journey investing in Fidelity's FSTVX. I could have saved myself several days of paper work, transferring money and getting to know Vanguard's not so user-friendly website. But my mom's words popped back into my head, " pennies make the dollar ". Maybe pennies don't make the dollars overnight, but they eventually make them So, even though Shakespeare left Hamlet without a family and dying from Laertes' poisonous blade, I would have encouraged him to ponder no more with these insightful words: I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions.

I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. I have accounts in both Vanguard and Fidelity.

ETF Screener ETF Analysis ETF Guide Mutual Funds Closed End Funds Editor's Picks. Summary Fidelity Or Vanguard? Who is King of the Index Fund? Which Index Fund Will Get You on the Path to Wealth Faster? Fidelity FSTVX The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund MUTF: For ease of comparison I split the data into 4 parts. Want to share your opinion on this article? Disagree with this article? To report a factual error in this article, click here. Follow Beyond Debt and get email alerts.