Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
Ranked 6 of 11 index funds by recommenders
Holds the whole stock market in one fund, and people say it is simple to buy and forget, with almost nobody beating it over a decade or more.
Holds the whole stock market in one fund, and people say it is simple to buy and forget, with almost nobody beating it over a decade or more.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Holds whole market, not just 500 firms
“which hold the entire market and should be more resistant to being gamed”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Danish Pension Blacklists SpaceX over 'Catastrophic Governance'” “even 500 companies is too much of a bias towards one group”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in ““Captain Gains” on Capitol Hill” “put your money in VTI/VTSAX instead of a S&P 500 fund”
Comment from 6 Jun 2026 in “S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic” Long horizon favors holding
“Turn wealth building into a time problem instead of a skill/luck/cash problem.”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake” “Almost nobody can beat that, if you have a decade or more.”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “I built a 516-panel financial terminal in 3 weeks using AI” Simple buy and hold
“Simply buy vtsax and forget for 30 years.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Why Almost Everyone Loses–Except a Few Sharks–On Prediction Markets” “Holding index funds seems reasonable”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in ““Captain Gains” on Capitol Hill”
Other index funds people recommend
The four most recommended other index funds, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 index fund | 28 | 13 | 68% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Invesco QQQ Trust | 11 | 10 | 52% | 7 | — | — |
| Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 11 | 4 | 73% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 10 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Vanguard Total Stock Market Index FundThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Inflation is usually estimated at 3% + annually over a long enough time horizon.”
“Turn wealth building into a time problem instead of a skill/luck/cash problem.”
“put your money in VTI/VTSAX instead of a S&P 500 fund”
“which hold the entire market and should be more resistant to being gamed”
“Simply buy vtsax and forget for 30 years.”
“Almost nobody can beat that, if you have a decade or more.”
“even 500 companies is too much of a bias towards one group”
“Holding index funds seems reasonable”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.