Vanguard vs. Everyone Else

We asked the Long Angle community which index fund providers are in their portfolios, and the result was one of the most lopsided polls we've ever run. Across 378 respondents, Vanguard funds (e.g., VTI, VOO, VXUS) were selected by 87% of investors.

That’s far and away the leader, ahead of Schwab and Fidelity at a third of respondents each.

The results are a reminder that for buy-and-hold investors, expense ratios are a critical factor in deciding which funds to invest in. Vanguard’s low-fee, broad-market ETFs are a staple even among those who don’t have a Vanguard brokerage account. 

Invesco's share of 27%, which is likely vast majority QQQ, means over a quarter of respondents are deliberately layering the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 on top of a broad-market base. State Street ranked at the bottom despite SPY being the most famous ETF ever created, as most high-net-worth investors prefer cheaper S&P 500 options.

In the discussion thread, several members shared they go with rules-based, actively managed funds from Avantis and Dimensional for small-cap and value factor tilts in place of traditional index funds. 

For more on the topic, this conversation is still happening inside Long Angle.

Once a liquidity event, an exit, or a public profile ties your name to real wealth, the instinct is to disappear from the internet. The simpler answer is to uplevel your digital footprint management.

According to Jason Passwaters, 12 years in Marine Corps counterintelligence and founder of threat-intelligence firm Intel 471, practicing good digital hygiene comes down to four steps:

1) A password manager with a unique, complex password for every account. The foundational step.

2) Multi-factor authentication on every financial and email account, ideally an authenticator app. Protecting email closes the most dangerous single point of failure.

3) Friction in money movement. If your brokerage lets you restrict outbound transfers behind extra verification, enabling it makes the account materially harder to drain.

4) Family awareness, the most overlooked. A spouse's post tagging your home, a child's account revealing your routine, a reused password on a shared streaming login. The household is only as secure as its least attentive member.

Read the full article: How to Protect Your Digital Footprint: A Cybersecurity Framework for High-Net-Worth Individuals 

Music royalties are income streams generated every time a song is streamed, played on radio, licensed for film or TV, or performed publicly. Here's how they work as an investment.

Every recorded song holds two separate copyrights: 

Investors can acquire either or both, and once you own a catalog it generates royalties for decades. Under US law, copyright protection runs for the life of the author plus 70 years, making a catalog bought today a potential century-long income stream. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the music royalties asset class:

A catalog can generate substantially more income multiple years after acquisition, driven by streaming expanding into international markets.

It adds up to a rare combination for income investors: contractual income, a decades-long runway, and a growth engine that keeps running without any new music being made.

For a deeper dive, read Investing in Music Royalties: What High-Net-Worth Investors Need to Know

A note from Hilary Catton, Sr. Community Engagement at Long Angle. 

One of my favorite parts of the Long Angle community is getting a front-row seat to the many different ways people build wealth.

On any given day, I might find myself talking with someone who owns a roofing business and has quietly built significant wealth, then come across a tech founder on the platform sharing lessons from scaling a company to an exit. 

The backgrounds and paths can be completely different, but somehow they end up in the same room, learning from each other and sharing what worked, what didn’t, and what they’ve learned along the way.

What’s your path to wealth? Join Long Angle to share your story and connect with 9,000+ members. 

Chris Bendtsen

Insights Lead, Long Angle

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