Life Knowledge After Service · Personal Finance
Top 10 ETFs — Simple Picks to Know
Plain-language notes on ten common exchange-traded funds, for a Soldier or veteran who has never been taught what an ETF is. I am not a financial advisor. This is education, not investment advice.
Before you read the list. An ETF (exchange-traded fund) is a basket of many
investments — stocks or bonds — that you buy and sell as one thing, the same way you'd buy a share of
stock. An expense ratio is the yearly fee the fund takes out of your money to run itself, shown as
a percent. The SEC's own words: "Even small differences in fees can mean large differences in returns over
time." Every expense ratio below has the date I confirmed it. Funds change their fees — sometimes more than
once a year. Before you buy anything, pull up the fund's current prospectus yourself at
sec.gov/edgar and check the
number is still the same.
Check this before you move TSP money anywhere
The single biggest thing this kind of list usually leaves out.
- You do not have to move your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) money out when you leave the service. In TSP's own words: "You can stay with the TSP even if you leave your federal job. You don't have to take any money from your TSP savings until you reach the age when you have to start taking IRS required minimum distributions."
- TSP's own 2025 total expense ratios: G fund 0.034%, F fund 0.035%, C fund 0.035%, S fund 0.051%, I fund 0.048% — at or below almost every fund on this page, with no brokerage account to open.
- If you cash out instead of rolling it over, you can owe tax and an early-withdrawal penalty on top.
★ Know this before you sign anything to move it.
None of this is insured or promised
No fund on this page is insured or guaranteed, including the bond fund. Every fund can lose
money, including the money you put in. A bond fund usually moves less than a stock fund, but it is not
"safe" — it can and does lose value, especially when interest rates rise.
What the expense ratio does not show you:
- An ETF trades like a stock. You pay the market price, which can sit above or below the fund's actual value, plus a small gap between the buy price and sell price (the "bid-ask spread"). The expense ratio does not include this.
- You may owe tax on dividends (cash payments a fund sends you) and on gains when you sell — the tax bill depends on the type of account: a regular brokerage account, an IRA, or a Roth IRA. Which one you use matters as much as which fund you pick, especially for a dividend or real-estate fund.
★ Read the risk section of any prospectus before you buy.
Veterans are a named target for investment fraud
The SEC's own warning, word for word:
Affinity-fraud scams target "older investors, or religious or military communities." The SEC advises
you "research the person's background, as well as the investment itself," using
Investor.gov's free tool to
"check if they are currently licensed and registered, and if they've had red flags like customer
complaints or disciplinary actions."
★ Check the person selling it to you, not just the fund.
Ten common ETFs, plain language
The category word (Core, Growth, Income, and so on) is a plain description of what the fund mostly holds — not an official ranking or a recommendation from any agency.
| Ticker | Fund | Category | What it owns | Expense ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | Core | The 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies. | 0.03% SEC filing, Apr 28, 2026 |
| VTI | Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF renamed from "Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF" effective July 29, 2026 when Vanguard moved this fund from a CRSP index to a Morningstar index; the ticker VTI did not change | Core | Nearly every publicly traded U.S. company, large and small. | 0.03% SEC filing, Apr 29, 2025 — no newer filing found; verify it still applies |
| QQQM | Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF | Growth | 100 of the largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq exchange, heavy in technology. | 0.15% SEC filing dated Dec 20, 2023, revised July 29, 2024 — the newest I could confirm; verify before buying |
| SCHD | Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF | Income | Established U.S. companies with a history of paying dividends (cash payments to shareholders). | I could not confirm a current expense ratio for this fund. Do not rely on a number you see elsewhere — check the prospectus at sec.gov before buying. |
| VXUS | Vanguard Total International Stock ETF | Diversification | Thousands of companies outside the United States. | 0.05% SEC filing effective Feb 3, 2025 |
| BND | Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF | Income | Thousands of U.S. bonds (a bond is a loan you make to a government or company that pays you interest). Not guaranteed — see the risk note above. | 0.03% SEC filing, Apr 28, 2026 |
| VUG | Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF renamed from "Vanguard Growth ETF" effective July 29, 2026; ticker VUG did not change | Growth | Large U.S. companies expected to grow faster than average. | 0.03% effective Feb 2, 2026, per Vanguard's SEC filing |
| VGT | Vanguard Information Technology ETF | Tech | U.S. technology companies. | 0.09% SEC filing dated Dec 19, 2025 |
| VNQ | Vanguard Real Estate ETF if a copy of this list you've seen prints "VNOM" instead — that is a different, unrelated ticker. The correct ticker for this fund is VNQ. | Real estate | Companies that own and operate buildings and property (a REIT) — not physical property itself. | 0.13%, includes 0.01% in fees from funds it holds in turn SEC filing dated May 29, 2025 |
| VB | Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap ETF renamed from "Vanguard Small-Cap ETF" effective July 29, 2026; ticker VB did not change | Small-cap U.S. stocks this is an all-stock fund, not a "balanced" holding — a balanced holding mixes stocks and bonds | Smaller, often newer U.S. companies. | 0.03% effective Feb 2, 2026, per Vanguard's SEC filing |
Five of these — VOO, VTI, VUG, VGT and QQQM — mostly own the same large U.S. companies. Buying
several of them is not five separate decisions; it's close to one. The word "diversified" only holds up
if you check what a fund actually owns, not just its name.
One common approach is to start with a single broad-market fund, then add others based on your own goals, timeline, and taxes. That's one approach, not a rule from VA, the SEC, or anyone else — this page is education, not investment advice. A licensed financial advisor, or the free tools below, can help you think it through before you put money down.
Free tools to check any of this yourself
- A fund's own prospectus — sec.gov/edgar
- Investing basics — investor.gov
- TSP's own fund and fee pages — tsp.gov/funds-individual and tsp.gov/tsp-basics/expenses-and-fees