{"id":19992,"date":"2023-08-25T14:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T14:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessyield.com\/?p=19992"},"modified":"2023-08-26T21:44:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T21:44:24","slug":"best-index-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessyield.com\/bs-investment\/best-index-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Index Funds: Top 13+ 2023 Picks for Beginners and Pros","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
The best index funds can help you generate wealth by diversifying your portfolio and lowering your expenses on transaction fees. In general, index funds are a good choice since passive fund management produces superior long-term returns than active fund management. This article covers some of the best index funds in for Beginners and Pros. It also lists the top total stock market index funds as of June.<\/p>\n
To choose an index fund, you must first determine which stock market index you wish to follow. After which, you\u2019d need to locate the fund that has the most closely correlated performance with that index.<\/p>\n
For the most part, the fund\u2019s expense ratio, which represents the annual management fee, should be modest. Here are our picks for the eight best index funds based on those factors.<\/p>\n
Investing in S&P 500 index funds is the closest to a sure thing when it comes to building wealth over time. The ZERO Large Cap Index Fund from Fidelity looks a lot like an S&P 500 index fund. It monitors indexes of just above 500 large-cap companies in the United States. However, it avoids paying pricey licensing fees to the S&P\u2019s parent firm because it isn\u2019t an official S&P 500 index fund. This allows Fidelity to offer the ZERO Large Cap Index Fund with zero investment expenses. In other words, the ZERO Large Cap Index Fund has a 0% expense ratio. It also has no minimum investment requirement, making it an excellent option for new investors.<\/p>\n
In 2020, the fund, which is benchmarked on the Fidelity U.S. Large Cap Index, generated a total return of 20.05 percent. In comparison, the S&P 500 returned 17.4 percent over the same time frame.<\/mark><\/p>\n With an expense ratio of 0.02 percent, Schwab\u2019s S&P 500 Index Fund is about the cheapest official S&P 500 index fund you\u2019ll find. That means you\u2019ll pay just $0.20 for $1,000 invested each year. There\u2019s also no minimum investment.<\/p>\n Furthermore, your returns are nearly identical to the S&P 500 index because the investment fee is so little.<\/p>\n The Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG) is a good choice if you can afford to take on more risk in exchange for bigger returns. The fund is based on the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index, which is similar to the S&P 500 Growth Index. It invests in each of the 255 large-cap growth equities in the United States.<\/p>\n Furthermore, tech equities are heavily represented, contributing for 47 percent of the fund\u2019s holdings. Energy and utility sectors, on the other hand, account for only 0.3 percent.<\/p>\n The VUG has a small expense ratio of 0.04 percent. The fund\u2019s five-year average annual return before taxes was 20.34 percent as of Dec. 31, 2020, compared to 15.19 percent for the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF.<\/p>\n#2. Schwab (SWPPX)<\/span><\/h3>\n
#3. Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF (VUG)<\/span><\/h3>\n