Overview
- Yahoo Finance pieces published July 12–13 report that the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) returned roughly 25% annualized over the past decade while the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) averaged about 15%.
- VGT is highly concentrated with Nvidia and Apple making up more than 30% of the fund and the top 10 holdings near 60%, which raises the risk of large, sector-driven drawdowns.
- The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) holds about 3,500 U.S. stocks, has over $650 billion in assets, and charges a 0.03% expense ratio, giving broad exposure that includes small and mid caps that S&P 500 funds exclude.
- VTI has historically recovered from severe selloffs — for example a roughly 37% drop in 2008 that took about three years to fully recover — and its low fees compound into a meaningful edge over decades.
- The central decision for long-term investors is clear: accept higher short-term volatility and single-stock risk to chase tech-driven growth, or favor a low-cost, diversified core that aims to weather downturns and preserve gains over time.