Opinions
Mike Philbrick
Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF
VFV-T
PARTIAL BUY
Sep 26, 2025
Stock price when the opinion was issued
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Note that it's a 9 bps expense ratio. Keep in mind that the S&P 500 is very tech and communications heavy, 30% tech and 9% communications. That space is not cheap. Risks. Those sectors have been almost the only leaders this year, so he expects some rotation into other sectors. Consider an equal weight ETF instead.
Vanguard is a great place to start. Keep in mind that the S&P is broad market-cap exposure, so it's price x outstanding shares, with no connection to value. Rather, it's more a momentum strategy. Leaves you exposed to Magnificent 7 and concentration risk.
The S&P 500 index, but in Canadian dollars. Not expensive at 9 bps MER. But, as he's pointed out before, the S&P has about 37% bunched up around 10 names (with 8 of those being tech names). So you can think it's extremely diversified, but it's not.
He's not saying not to own it, but you need to know what you're buying compared to what you already own in your portfolio.
Remember that you haven't had any volatility with your GICs. It's been a fixed, set rate of return. They only ever went up.
If this is your first foray into the market, pace yourself. Get used to the fact that you're going to have volatility day to day. Have to make sure you won't get scared out of your portfolio during something like the tariff tantrum earlier this year. On the chart, you can see how this ETF had ~20% decline in April because of that, and that was in big, blue-chip US stocks.
Fee on this is 9 bps, very cheap. Very good access to the US market. Consider broadening your diversification. Also have some global and Canadian equities. Also have some bonds. Add gold, and maybe a smidge of bitcoin, to buoy your portfolio during inflationary shocks. See today's Past Top Picks for a good solution from Fidelity, FEQT.