The ULTIMATE

INDEX
FUNd
Cheatsheet
How to build wealth
passively with the
best low-cost index
funds & ETFs
rose han
A Note From Rose

First off, congrats on taking this first step This cheatsheet demystifies the process and
towards investing and creating financial helps you buy your first index fund in 3 easy
freedom! Index funds are my FAVORITE steps:
way to build wealth, and I’m so excited for
you to get your money working for YOU. Step 1: Pick your brokerage and
open an account
Imagine waking up to a nice, fat dividend
deposit in your account, PLUS +$500 of Step 2: Pick which index funds to
market gains… money you made in your invest in
sleep! All of that is possible when you
Step 3: Buy your first index fund!
harness the power of index funds.

Now I’m sure you’re eager to make your So grab a cup of coffee, find a comfy spot
first investment and start putting your with your laptop, and let’s get down to it💪🏼
money to work, but you’re probably
wondering *how* to actually do it. Investing To freedom,

Rose
can feel very daunting at first!

If that’s you, no worries because I’ve got

you covered!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 01

 3 Steps to Buying
Your First Index Fund

STEP 2
Pick which index
funds to invest in

STEP 1 STEP 3
Pick your brokerage Buy your first index
and open an fund!
account

We'll go over each of these 3 steps in the next few

pages of this Cheatsheet!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 02

STEP 01

PICK YOUR
BROKERAGE AND
OPEN AN ACCOUNT
First things first, you’ll need to open your investment account! I STRONGLY recommend
Vanguard or Fidelity, which offer the best low-cost index funds. Although you can
technically buy Vanguard and Fidelity funds at any brokerage, other brokerages might
charge you expensive transaction fees that can be entirely avoided. That’s why I
recommend opening your account at either Vanguard or Fidelity.

In terms of usability, reputation, and customer support, Vanguard and Fidelity are
unmatched. They also offer many of the same types of index funds and features, so you
truly can’t go wrong with either.

However, there are a few minor differences, so on the next page I have a chart to help you
compare:

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 03

 $0, however many of Vanguard’s mutual
$0, all Fidelity mutual funds have a $0
Account Minimum funds have a $3,000 investment
investment minimum
minimum

$20 annual account service fee, waived

Fees None
if you sign up for statement e-delivery

Over 3,400 no-transaction-fee mutual Over 3,300 no-transaction-fee mutual

Fund Selection
funds funds

Offers full-service banking: Checking

Cash Management No banking services account with debit card and billpay,
Credit card with 2% cashback rewards

Full range of brokerage and retirement

Full range of brokerage and retirement accounts, PLUS a Health Savings
Accounts Offered
accounts Account (HSA) which Vanguard doesn’t
offer

Full range of investments (stocks, bonds,

Full range of investments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, options, etc), PLUS
Products Offers
mutual funds, ETFs, options, etc) crypto investing which Vanguard
doesn’t offer

As you can see, Vanguard is very much focused on index fund investing, whereas Fidelity
offers a robust range of products and services.

If you’re a beginner investor starting out with less than $5,000, I recommend Fidelity so
that you do not feel restricted by Vanguard funds’ $3,000 investment minimums.

Not only this, but Fidelity’s extra features make it a nice one-stop-shop place for all your
financial needs, whether it’s index fund investing, banking, credit cards, and yes… even
crypto.

Personally, I’ve been with Fidelity for over a decade now and love it!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 04

STEP 02

PICK WHICH INDEX

FUNDS TO INVEST IN
Below is a comprehensive list of the BEST low-cost index funds you’ll ever find
ANYWHERE.

In case you didn’t know, there are two index fund styles, Mutual Funds and ETFs. They’re
basically the same thing, except:

Mutual Funds can be bought & sold once a day at the end of the day (or at “market
close”), whereas ETFs can be bought & sold any time during market hours.

Mutual Fund investments can be automated (e.g. you can invest a set amount each
month automatically), but ETF investments can’t. This is a huge differentiator if you are
a set it and forget it type of investor!

ETFs are slightly better than Mutual Funds from a tax perspective, although the
difference is negligible.

To give you more options, I’ve included both in this list!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 05

U.S. Stocks
Stocks are always categorized as either “small-cap”, “mid-cap”, or “large-cap”. This
refers to the size (market capitalization) of the company. Small-cap companies tend to
have higher growth than large-cap companies, but of course the tradeoff is that they
are less stable.

In the U.S., most people talk about investing only in the S&P 500, which is purely made up
of large-cap companies. However, you can also invest in small-cap and mid-cap companies.
Unless you have a specific preference, I recommend going for maximum diversification by
investing only in “total market” funds, which include companies of all sizes!

Ticker Investment Expense

Name Description Fund Style
Symbol Minimum Ratio

Fidelity 500 Invests in the 500 largest

FXAIX Mutual Fund $0 0.015%
Index Fund U.S. stocks

Vanguard S&P Invests in the 500 largest

VOO ETF $0 0.03%
500 ETF U.S. stocks

Fidelity Total
Invests in the 4,000
Market Index FSKAX Mutual Fund $0 0.015%
largest U.S. stocks
Fund

Provides exposure to US
Vanguard Total
small-, mid-, and large-
Stock Market VTSAX Mutual Fund $3,000 0.04%
cap growth and value
Index Fund
stocks

Provides exposure to US
Vanguard Total small-, mid-, and large-
VTI ETF $0 0.03%
Stock Market ETF cap growth and value
stocks

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 06

International Stocks
With international stocks, you have a choice between developed countries (such as
Japan, Canada, France, Australia), emerging market countries (such as Brazil, India,
China, Russia), or a combination of the two! Some people prefer not to invest in
emerging market countries, as they are high-risk, but they do provide the potential for
high-return.

In the investing world, the word “stocks” is used interchangeably with “equities”. So
next time you want to sound super smart, just tell your friends “Why yes, I’m investing
in Emerging Market equities.” Bonus points if you do it with a British accent!

Ticker Investment Expense

Name Description Fund Style
Symbol Minimum Ratio

Fidelity Invests in broad range of

International FSPSX stocks from 21 foreign Mutual Fund $0 0.035%
Index Fund developed countries

Invests in broad range of

Fidelity Global ex stocks from 22 foreign
FSGGX developed countries (ex- Mutual Fund $0 0.055%
U.S. Index Fund U.S.) and 26 emerging
market countries

Vanguard Total Tracks stock returns from

companies in developed
International VTIAX and emerging Mutual Fund $3,000 0.11%
Stock Index Fund economies (ex-U.S.)

Vanguard Total Tracks stock returns from

companies in developed
International VXUS and emerging ETF $0 0.07%
Stock ETF economies (ex-U.S.)

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 07

 Ticker Investment Expense
Name Description Fund Style
Symbol Minimum Ratio

Vanguard Includes large-, mid-, small-,

Developed and micro-cap stocks of Mutual
VTMGX developed markets outside $3,000 0.07%
Markets Index Fund
Fund the United States.

Vanguard FTSE Provides exposure to large-,

mid-, and small-cap
Developed VEA companies located in Canada ETF $0 0.05%
Markets ETF and the major markets of
Europe and the Pacific region.

Fidelity
Emerging Invests in broad range of Mutual
FPADX stocks from 24 emerging $0 0.075%
Markets Index market countries Fund
Fund

Vanguard Invests in stocks of companies

Emerging located in emerging markets Mutual
VEMAX around the world, such as $0 0.03%
Markets Stock China, Brazil, Taiwan, and Fund
Index Fund South Africa.

Vanguard FTSE Invests in broad range of

Emerging VWO stocks from emerging market ETF $0 0.08%
countries such as China,
Markets ETF Brazil, and South Africa.

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 08

Real Estate
With real estate stocks (REITs), you can choose funds that have a focus on different types of
properties, or funds that focus more on income vs. growth. Many of these aren’t index funds
as they are actively managed, so the selection of real estate INDEX funds at Fidelity is pretty
limited.

Ticker Investment Expense

Name Description Fund Style
Symbol Minimum Ratio

Fidelity Real Invests in U.S. commercial

FSRNX and residential real estate Mutual Fund $0 0.07%
Estate Fund via REITs

Vanguard Real Invests in U.S. commercial

Estate Index VGSLX and residential real estate Mutual Fund $3,000 0.12%
Fund via REITs

Vanguard Real Invests in U.S. commercial

VNQ and residential real estate ETF $0 0.12%
Estate ETF via REITs

Vanguard Global
ex-U.S. Real Invests in international
VGRLX commercial and residential Mutual Fund $3,000 0.12%
Estate Index real estate via REITs
Fund

Vanguard Global Invests in international

ex-U.S. Real VNQI commercial and residential ETF $0 0.12%
Estate ETF real estate via REITs

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 09

Bonds
With bonds, you have a choice between government bonds or corporate bonds. Corporate
bonds pay higher yields but are also riskier than government bonds. Furthermore, you also
have a choice between short-term (1-5 yrs), intermediate-term (5-10 yrs), and long-term
bonds (10-30 yrs).

Ticker Investment Expense

Name Description Fund Style
Symbol Minimum Ratio

Fidelity U.S. Invests in a mix of

FXNAX government and corporate Mutual Fund $0 0.025%
Bond Index Fund bonds

Vanguard Total
Bond Market VBTLX Tracks performance of a Mutual Fund $3,000 0.05%
broad, US bond index
Index Fund

Vanguard Total Tracks performance of a

BND broad, US bond index ETF $0 0.03%
Bond Market ETF

Fidelity
Intermediate Invests in U.S. Treasuries
FUAMX with maturities of 5-10 years Mutual Fund $3,000 0.03%
Treasury Bond
Index Fund

Vanguard
Intermediate- Invests in U.S. Treasuries
VSIGX Mutual Fund $3,000 0.07%
Term Treasury with maturities of 3-10 years
Index Fund

Vanguard
Intermediate- Invests in U.S. Treasuries
VGIT with maturities of 5-10 years ETF $0 0.04%
Term Treasury
ETF

Fidelity Inflation- Invests in U.S. inflation-

Protected Bond FIPDX protected Treasuries (a.k.a. Mutual Fund $0 0.05%
Index Fund “TIPs”)

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 10

 Ticker Investment Expense
Name Description Fund Style
Symbol Minimum Ratio

Vanguard Inflation- Invests in U.S. inflation-

Protected VIPSX protected Treasuries (aka Mutual Fund $0 0.20%
Securities Fund “TIPs”)

Fidelity Short-Term
Treasury Bond FUMBX Invests in U.S. Treasuries Mutual Fund $0 0.03%
with maturities of 1-5 years
Index Fund

Vanguard Short-
Term Treasury VSBSX Invests in U.S. Treasuries Mutual Fund $3,000 0.07%
with maturities of 1-3 years
Index Fund

Vanguard Short- Invests in U.S. Treasuries

VGSH ETF $0 0.04%
Term Treasury ETF with maturities of 1-3 years

Fidelity Long-Term Invests in U.S. Treasuries

Treasury Bond FNBGX with maturities of 10-30 Mutual Fund $0 0.03%
Index Fund years

Vanguard Long-
Term Treasury VLGSX Invests in U.S. Treasuries Mutual Fund $3,000 0.07%
with maturities of 10+ years
Index Fund

Vanguard Long- Invests in U.S. Treasuries

VGLT with maturities of 10 - 25 ETF $0 0.04%
Term Treasury ETF years

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 11

Asset allocation

At this point, you might be thinking, “This is great Rose, but how do I CHOOSE from this
list?!”

The answer? Asset allocation!

Asset allocation is a smart investing strategy that involves putting your money into different
types of investments (aka “asset classes”), versus putting all your money into just one asset
class. This reduces the risk of huge losses, because different asset classes tend to perform
differently even under the same economic conditions. For example, when stocks go down,
bonds might go up, and vice versa.

A lot of factors go into choosing your asset allocation (your age, your retirement goals, your
risk appetite, etc), but here are a few asset allocation ideas from experts I admire!

In addition to asset allocation, here are a few other tips for choosing your index funds:

Keep the expense ratio below 0.5%. If it’s above that, find a cheaper option.

Make sure your brokerage won’t charge you hefty transaction fees when you buy
or sell.

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 12

 Jack Bogle
(Founder of Vanguard)
Recommends that you own your age in bonds and rest in stocks

For example, if you’re 30 years old, you would own 30% Bonds and 70% Stocks. This is a
rather conservative approach to investing, and makes sense if you are more risk averse.

30% FXNAX 30% VBTLX or BND

Bonds Bonds
30%
30%

70% FSKAX
70%
70%

Stocks 70% VTI or VTSAX

Stocks

The key to For more information on this

making money in strategy, you can check out
stocks is not to Bogle’s book: The Little Book
get scared out of of Common Sense Investing:
them. The Only Way to Guarantee
- Jack Bogle Your Fair Share of Stock Market
Returns

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 13

 David Swensen
(Yale’s Chief Investment Officer)
Recommends a highly diversified portfolio

Swensen made Yale’s endowment one of the best performing funds for over 20 years
during his career. His advice is to create a portfolio with the following breakdown:

15% FSRNX
Real Estate

FSKAX 30%
10.5%

U.S. Stocks
15% FUAMX
31.6%

U.S. Treasuries
15.8%

15% FIPDX
Inflation-Protected
Treasuries
15.8%

FSPSX 15%
International Stocks
10% FPADX 15.8%

Emerging Market Stocks 10.5%

VEMAX or VWO 10%

Emerging Market

10%

VTSAX or VTI 30%

Domestic Equity
15% VGSLX or VNQ 30%

Real Estate 15%

15% VSIGX or VGIT

U.S. Treasuries
15%

15%
VTIAX or VXUS 15%
International Equity
15% VIPSX
Inflation-Protected Treasuries
15%

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 14

 Warren Buffet
(CEO of Berkshire Hathaway)
Recommends holding 90% of your portfolio in stocks

Buffet laid out the 90/10 strategy for investing in his will, which calls for putting 90% into low-
cost stock index funds and 10% into short term government bonds. Holding 90% in stocks is
a more aggressive strategy than the previous two asset allocation ideas I’ve mentioned, but if
you’re an investor with a high risk tolerance and a long time horizon, this could make the
most sense for you!

10% FUMBX 10% VSBSX or VGSH 10%

10%

Short Term Bonds Short Term Bonds

90% FSKAX 90% VTI or VTSAX

Stocks Stocks
90% 90%

Risk comes from not

knowing what you're doing.
- Warren Buffet

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 15

STEP 03

BUY YOUR FIRST FUND!

Now that you know which fund you want to buy, let’s walk through how to actually
execute a trade in both Fidelity and Vanguard. It’s not always the most intuitive, so don’t
get discouraged if you’ve tried this before and it didn’t make sense - we can do it
together!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 16

Fidelity
Step-by-step tutorial
1. Log into your Fidelity account and on the homepage, locate the search bar in the top
right hand corner. Input the ticker of the index fund you’re looking to buy there.

2. This will take you to the summary page for this fund. You can use this page to get important
information about this fund, like the current price and expense ratio. Once you’re ready, click
the green “buy” button on the page.

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 17

3. This should take you to the trade window, which you can see below. Add in the account you
want to use, and make sure that before you get to this step, you’ve already funded your
account with cash! This will be the “cash available to trade” you see when on this screen.

Confirm that the right ticker is populated, and then set your action to be “buy”. Input the dollar
amount of the purchase you wish to make, which must be less than the cash you have available
to trade. Then hit “Preview Order” which should take you a summary of the trade, review the
information, and hit “Place Order”.

That’s it! You’ve now bought your first Fidelity index fund!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 18

Vanguard
Step-by-step tutorial
1. Log into Vanguard, and click the magnifying glass icon in the top right of the screen. This
will take you to a search page, where you can then input the ticker of the fund you wish to
purchase.

2. Once again, this will lead you to the product summary page which has a ton of useful
information about this fund. One thing to look out for with Vanguard funds especially is the
“minimum investment” amount listed on this page, as many Vanguard funds require a $3,000
minimum (and you might not have that….yet!)

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 19

 3. Once you’re ready to purchase, hit “buy” which will navigate you to the Vanguard trade
window. This is where it gets fun, first select the account you want to buy this fund in, and
note how much money you have available to trade in this account. As I mentioned, if the fund
has a minimum investment amount, you’ll need to input a purchase amount higher than the
minimum otherwise the screen will error out (see below).

4. To show you what the rest of the process looks like, I’m going to proceed with an index
fund I already hold more than $3,000 of, which enables me to buy any amount going forward!
I input my purchase amount, and hit continue to see this screen. You will usually use your
“settlement fund” to pay for these transactions, which is just where Vanguard holds
uninvested funds you’ve added.

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 20

5. Finally, hit “preview order” to review this trade! Note that if you input details for a
trade that you don’t have enough cash in your account for, the system will warn you.
After you’ve reviewed the details and feel good, hit “submit order” and that’s it.
You just bought your first Vanguard fund!

By putting in the work now

to setup your investment
portfolio, you’re setting
yourself up for more and
more freedom in the future.
So remember not to get
bogged down by one day,
one month, or even one year
of poor performance. You’re
playing the long game!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 21

What’s Next?
I hope this cheatsheet gave you a jumpstart on
your investing journey!

If you’re ready to take this EVEN further, you

might be interested in my upcoming program,
Freedom Seekers — a monthly membership
designed to help you create *true financial
independence*.

As a Freedom Seeker, you’ll get access to:

The Freedom Formula My signature

step-by-step formula for managing and
investing your money to create a life of
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Retiring early doesn’t mean not working, but
Juicy money masterclasses On it does mean having the ability to wake up
special deep-dive topics, such as how each day and decide what YOU want to do
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If that sounds good to you, click here to join
A community of Freedom Seekers the waitlist and keep an eye out for an email
Achieving financial freedom is much in your inbox for when Freedom Seekers
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founding member pricing! Rose
Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 22
 I hope this cheatsheet gets you started with investing in your own index funds, and
gives you the confidence to continue your investing journey! If you found this helpful
and want to continue learning more, I want to invite you to take the next step…..

”The 3 Secrets to Successful Investing in Times of Uncertainty”

In this FREE hour-long masterclass, I’ll cover:

What to look for when checking in on your index fund portfolio.

I’ll take you through how I periodically review and adjust my own index fund
portfolio.

Future proofing your investments,

So your portfolio can weather market recessions

How to set your portfolio up for even higher gains for free!
Hint: it has something to do with dividends.

The deadly mistake that could shave up to $164,000 off your nest egg
And what to do about it (guess what, it’s entirely fixable!)

See you there!

Ultimate Index Fund Cheatsheet 23