2 Vanguard ETFs to Buy With $100 and Hold Forever: Your Path to Financial Freedom

Forget Wall Street's complex schemes—sometimes the simplest moves pack the hardest punch. Two Vanguard ETFs stand out for investors ready to turn $100 into a lifelong wealth-building machine.

Low-Cost Powerhouses: Vanguard's infamous fee-slashing approach puts more money back in your pocket—imagine that, actually keeping your returns instead of feeding the finance industry's obsession with over-complication.

Set-and-Forget Strategy: These ETFs handle diversification automatically, bypassing the need for constant tinkering or panic-driven decisions. Perfect for those who prefer earning over worrying.

Long-Term Compound Magic: With just $100, you tap into market growth that compounds quietly year after year—while active fund managers scramble to justify their fees. A little cynicism? In a world of financial noise, sometimes the boring choice is the revolutionary one.

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Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

The(VOO 0.81%) is as close to a one-stop shop as you can get. The fund tracks the S&P 500 index, which gives you instant exposure to about 500 of the largest U.S. companies.

The index is dominated by tech leaders like,,,,, and, which together account for nearly a third of the fund. These companies have been the biggest winners over the past decade, and by owning the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, you automatically own them without having to make individual stock calls.

What makes this ETF so powerful is how it adapts over time. The index continually reshuffles to lean into the winners, and that natural evolution has fueled strong long-term returns. Over the past 10 years, the fund has averaged annual gains in the mid-teens, which includes both bull and bear markets.

Costs, meanwhile, are rock-bottom at 0.03%, which means almost all the index's return stays in your pocket. If you want a simple, dependable investment to help build wealth, this ETF checks every box. It will not shoot the lights out, but it will do exactly what it is supposed to do: deliver steady growth, adapt with the market, and give you confidence to keep buying no matter what the headlines say.

Vanguard Growth ETF

If you want more firepower in your portfolio, the(VUG 0.83%) is the way to go. It focuses on large-cap growth stocks with strong sales and earnings momentum, which tilts the portfolio even more heavily toward technology names. Think of it as the growth side of the S&P 500.

The fund holds about 160 stocks, but the top names carry more weight than in the S&P 500. Nvidia, for instance, is a much larger position here, reflecting its massive growth story. That technology bent has been a tailwind for investors, with the ETF posting annualized gains north of 17% over the past decade.

The trade-off is less diversification, but the payoff has been outsize performance. If you're a big believer that artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to drive the market, this is an ETF you want to own.

Similar to the Vanguard 500 ETFs, costs stay low, coming in at just 0.04%. That makes theone of the cheapest ways to own the market's top growth stocks without betting on any single company. For investors willing to keep putting money in regularly, these two ETFs can anchor a portfolio for decades. You don't need to overthink it; you just need to consistently invest over time.