With more than $9 trillion in assets, Vanguard dominates the mutual fund and exchange-traded fund landscape in the United States. Vanguard’s ETFs and mutual funds are go-to choices for long-term investors, for many reasons:
Vanguard funds tend to be less expensive. Vanguard has built its reputation as a low-cost asset manager, and it remains one of the industry’s lower-cost providers.
Vanguard funds generally pursue simple, reliable strategies. Vanguard’s brand is synonymous with index funds, which, by their very nature, are uncomplicated in their approaches and reliable in their performances.
Long-term investors can easily build well-diversified portfolios composed exclusively of top-rated Vanguard ETFs or mutual funds. Vanguard covers the bases with excellent choices among the three main asset classes: US stocks, international stocks, and bonds. It also excels in more tightly defined strategies, boasting highly rated style-specific, dividend-stock, real estate, and inflation bond funds.
Morningstar’s list of the best Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs for long-term investors to buy and hold for 2025 and beyond features top-rated funds that we expect to outperform their competitors over a full market cycle. Investors can confidently buy and hold these funds in a long-term portfolio.
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This list of Vanguard’s top index funds to buy that invest in stocks includes a good deal of variety. Some of the funds invest around the globe, while others favor US stocks. Others track indexes based on market capitalization (mid- or small-cap stocks) or investment style (growth stocks or value stocks)—or both. To fully understand a fund’s strategy, be sure to read its Morningstar Analyst Report. All the building blocks are there to create a well-diversified, buy-and-hold, low-cost equity portfolio.
Vanguard’s top bond index funds to buy for the long term run the gamut, with solid choices investing in taxable bonds of varying types and maturities—and even include tax-free and inflation-protected bond funds. Here, too, most investors will find the low-cost building blocks they need to balance an equity-heavy portfolio.
Although Vanguard may be best known today for its comprehensive and highly rated suite of index funds, the asset manager lays claim to several excellent actively managed funds, too, across all asset classes.
Vanguard’s active funds to buy and hold are managed by various well-respected subadvisors, including Primecap and Wellington Investment Management, among others. Like Vanguard’s passive funds, the highly rated members of this active fund lineup charge modest fees.
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Of course, focusing only on Vanguard funds that earn a Gold rating may be too limiting for some long-term investors. Those who’d like to consider Vanguard funds beyond our top rating can:
Build your own Vanguard mutual fund and ETF screen using the Morningstar Investor Screener tool. Beneath Investment Type, choose either mutual fund or ETF; type Vanguard as the keyword. Then drill down further based on asset class, Morningstar Category, ratings, and other metrics that matter to you.