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.

SEC's own ETF basics at investor.gov
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.
Read this first

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.
No guarantees

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.
Protect yourself

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.
The list

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.

TickerFundCategoryWhat it ownsExpense ratio
VOOVanguard S&P 500 ETFCore The 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies. 0.03% SEC filing, Apr 28, 2026
VTIVanguard 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 changeCore 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
QQQMInvesco NASDAQ 100 ETFGrowth 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
SCHDSchwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETFIncome 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.
VXUSVanguard Total International Stock ETFDiversification Thousands of companies outside the United States. 0.05% SEC filing effective Feb 3, 2025
BNDVanguard Total Bond Market ETFIncome 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
VUGVanguard Morningstar Growth ETF renamed from "Vanguard Growth ETF" effective July 29, 2026; ticker VUG did not changeGrowth Large U.S. companies expected to grow faster than average. 0.03% effective Feb 2, 2026, per Vanguard's SEC filing
VGTVanguard Information Technology ETFTech U.S. technology companies. 0.09% SEC filing dated Dec 19, 2025
VNQVanguard 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
VBVanguard Morningstar Small-Cap ETF renamed from "Vanguard Small-Cap ETF" effective July 29, 2026; ticker VB did not changeSmall-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