This Vanguard ETF Transformed $10,000 Into $82,000 Since 2015 - And It’s Just Getting Started

The quiet performer that's been crushing traditional investments for a decade.

Compounding in plain sight

While Wall Street chases flashy trends, this single Vanguard ETF delivered 720% returns since 2015 - turning modest investments into life-changing sums. No leverage, no complex derivatives, just steady growth that makes hedge funds blush.

The power of staying power

Forget timing the market - this fund proves consistency trumps speculation every time. While crypto bros were sweating volatility and stock pickers were chasing the next meme sensation, this ETF quietly built wealth for investors who understood the magic of patience.

Why the smart money isn't always loud money

Sometimes the most revolutionary investment strategy is simply not being stupid - a concept that apparently escapes most financial advisors charging 2% for underperformance. This fund's success story reads like a masterclass in ignoring the noise and letting compounding do the heavy lifting.

The boring path to extraordinary returns continues - proving once again that in finance, the real alpha often comes from avoiding beta behavior.

Vanguard's tech titan

Like most of Vanguard's ETFs, the Vanguard Information Technology ETF is an index fund and is not actively managed. It tracks theIndex. The 25 refers to the rule that no single holding can represent more than a 25% weighting in the index, while the 50 refers to the rule that the weights of all stocks that are more than 5% holdings cannot account for more than 50% of the index.

Although these guardrails aim to diversify the index to some degree, the Vanguard Information Technology ETF is still one of the most top-heavy ETFs out there. The ETF holds over 300 tech stocks, but its three largest positions, consisting of(NVDA 0.86%),(AAPL 2.04%), and, make up nearly 44% of its portfolio. No other holding accounts for more than a 5% position, withits fourth-largest holding with a 4.5% weighting.

Nevertheless, the biggest investments in the ETF have directly influenced how well it has performed over the last ten years. Nvidia now accounts for over 17% of the portfolio, as the stock has gained more than 25,000% over the past decade. That's not a typo. Apple, meanwhile, is up over 700% during that stretch, and Microsoft more than 850%. Broadcom hasn't been too shabby, either, up more than 2,600%.

The Vanguard Information Technology ETF's construction, which allows its top holding to continually get larger (within reason), is one of the biggest reasons behind its performance, generating an average annual return of 23.5% over the past 10 years, which not only crushes the 15.3% return of the S&P 500 over the same period, but also any other Vanguard ETF. The next best performing Vanguard fund is the(MGK 0.68%), with an average yearly return of 18.9% over the last ten years.

Image source: Getty Images.

Is the ETF still a buy?

Where the ETF goes from here is largely going to be dependent on the stock performance of its top holdings. Nvidia looks like it still has massive growth in front of it, as its graphics processing units (GPUs) are the backbone of the AI infrastructure buildout. Microsoft, meanwhile, has been clicking on all cylinders, as AI is driving both its cloud computing and enterprise software businesses. Apple's AI efforts are somewhat behind the curve, but the company has a massive, affluent customer base it can better leverage to monetize better with AI.

Given the Vanguard Information Technology ETF's heavy concentration around a few stocks, it wouldn't be the only ETF I'd own. However, with AI looking like it is in the early innings, it is certainly one to hold on to.

The key with ETF investing, though, remains dollar-cost averaging. While putting $10,000 into the ETF and just letting it sit WOULD have given you a pretty nice return, if you consistently dollar cost-averaged into the fund, you'd be even better off. For example, if you invested an additional $1,000 each month during that same 10-year stretch, you'd now have around $491,000 in your account. That's how you build real, long-term wealth.