I’m one of Vanguard’s biggest fans, and I’ve used Vanguard Investor, its personal investing service for UK investors, for many years. As Jonathan Hollow and I explain in our book, How to Fund the Life You Want, Vanguard Investor makes investing simple, cheap and highly efficient.
To be clear, for most investors, Vanguard Investor is still an excellent option, but if you haven’t yet invested anything and are looking to start, Vanguard may no longer be the no-brainer it used to be.
Why not? Well, Vanguard has announced that it’s introducing a £4 monthly minimum account fee for Vanguard Investor with total invested balances under £32,000. It’ll come into effect on 31 January 2025. The company said in a statement the introduction of the minimum fee is “necessary to help Vanguard cover the rising cost of serving our clients”.
Now this might seem like a minor change. To many people, £48 a year is not a huge amount. But compounded over time, it does make a difference, especially if you can't afford to invest very much. In those crucial early years of investing, its especially important to keep your costs to a minimum.
Ryan King is the founder of the online financial education platform Making Money Simple. He's also the author of Stop Waiting, Start Investing, a new book from Harriman House. He too has recommended Vanguard Investor in the past. In this video, Ryan explains why, in light of Vanguard’s new charging structure, he now thinks some investors should explore alternative options.
Robin recently interviewed Ryan King for The Investing Show. You can watch the episode here: