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Vanguard Automatic Investing: Put Your Investments On Autopilot

What is Vanguard Automatic Investing?

Vanguard allows you to sign up for automatic investing plans. When I took investing seriously, I learned this simple method. Not only does it save me a lot of time, but also it has improved my financial life exponentially.

The one thing I like about automatic investment is that you can set it and forget it, knowing that your money is growing.

With Vanguard automatic investing, you designate the monthly amount you want to invest, say $100. This amount is then automatically taken out of your bank checking account and deposited into your Vanguard investing account.

A good illustration of automatic investing is Acorns, which is a tool that allows you to save and invest your spare changes. The app rounds up your purchases up to the nearest dollar and puts the spare change into the stock market for you. The app is $1 a month, and you’ll get a $5 bonus when you sign up.

The process is just that simple. Read: How to get A Free $75 By Setting A Direct Deposit.

If you don’t want to automate your finances and you decide to do it yourself manually every month, that’s fine too. But know that, you have to remember to do it. You also have to set aside a few hours each month to transfer your money from one account to the next.

But if you want to focus your time on other important matters, you should consider setting up an automatic investment plan. And if so, this article is for you.

In this article, you will learn how to enroll in Vanguard Automatic Investing Plan and why you should set it up..

Reasons Why You Should Use Vanguard Automatic Investing

Set it and forget it.

If you aim to invest, but haven’t specified how often or how much, chance is that it’s likely you won’t actually do it.

But setting up a Vanguard automatic investing means that you don’t have to remember to invest and your hard-earned money can start earning interest as soon as it lands in your investment account. It also means that you won’t accidently spend the money.

Dollar cost averaging.

When you set up an automatic investment, you get the benefit of “dollar-cost averaging.” If you don’t know what dollar-cost averaging means, here is a good definition.

According to Investopedia, dollar-cost averaging is a strategy where an investor divides up the total amount of money he or she wants to invest across periodic purchases of a target asset in a way to reduce the impact of volatility on the overall purchase.

So, the purchases are made regardless of the price of any stock within your account.

Thus, the benefit of dollar cost averaging is that it imparts discipline to the saving process.

Another benefit is that by investing a fixed-dollar amount every month, you accumulate more shares when the price is low. And you accumulate fewer when the price is low, thus averaging out the cost of your holdings.

It saves time.

Automatic investing simply saves you time. If you have to manually transfer money from one account to another every month, not only will you sometime forget to do it but also it will take time from your busy schedule to actually do it.

Having more time on your plate and one less thing to stress about, you will be able to focus your time on other important matters.

Now that you know some of the reasons why you should set up a Vanguard automatic investing, here’s how to do it.

How to Set Up Vanguard Automatic Investing?

Setting up Vanguard Automatic investing allows you to transfer money into your investment account on a regular basis. It’s simply putting money aside that could be earning you interest.

Vanguard makes it very easy to set automatic investing, whether it’s Vanguard mutual funds, index funds, or retirements accounts like a Vanguard Roth IRA.

If you set up the Vanguard automatic investing where you will buy mutual funds every week, month, or quarter, you will need to set up a corresponding recurring deposits to your account.

To set up Vanguard Automatic Investing:

  • Go to Vanguard and click “My accounts” to log on.
  • Then select Profile & Account Settings from the drop down menu in the main navigation. Then select “Automatic Investment” under the Banking and money movement section.
  • Click “Add automatic transaction” link beneath your accounts. Or, click the “Add automatic transaction” button in the Investments tab on the Automatic Transactions page.
  • On the Set up automatic investments page, select the account you want to invest into. It is important to note that you can only automate investments into Vanguard mutual funds. Select the funding method you would like to use, the frequency of investment, when you’d like to start and end. And select how much you’d like to invest based on dollar amount.
  • Then, select the fund or funds you would like to invest into, how much you’d like to invest and then click the continue button.
  • Review your automatic investment and click the Submit button.
  • Review and submit your automatic investment. You are all set!

How to Change or Cancel Your Automatic Investing Plan

At any time, you can login to Vanguard to manage and cancel your automatic investing plan and any other transfers you have set up.

Conclusion

If you plan on having a diversified portfolio in your Vanguard account, the automatic investment plan is for you. Automatic investing is indeed a smarter way to invest money. You just contribute your money to your Vanguard investment account at regular intervals to be invested in your portfolio. The money can be automatically deducted from your paycheck or your bank account.

Are you convinced that automatic investment makes sense? Do you have a Vanguard Automatic Investment Plan? Please let me know in the comment section below.

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2 Replies to “Vanguard Automatic Investing: Put Your Investments On Autopilot”

  1. I have set an automatic investment plan with the Vanguard Group Investment Family where my Roth IRA at Vanguard automatically invests in both the Vanguard Admiral Total Stock Market Index fund and the Vanguard Admiral Total Bond Index fund.

    1. I am glad that you did, Joseph. Automating your investment has so many benefits. One main benefit is that it lowers the average cost of your investment in the short run, as stocks can be volatile.

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