Lifecycle, Lifestyle, Target Retirement… and now LifeStrategy. Are these all the same things? Are they different? Is it just branding at work?
LifeStrategy is Vanguard’s trademarked name for a Lifestyle fund. If you recall the differences between a Lifestyle and a Lifecycle fund, a lifecycle fund is one that changes its asset allocation as time passes. A lifestyle fund, on the other hand, remains static and is like a snapshot in time of a lifecycle fund.
Vanguard added four LifeStrategy funds – Conservative Growth, Growth, Income, and Moderate Growth. The Conservative Growth Fund is 20% short term reserves, 30% bonds, and 50% stocks. The Growth Fund is 0% short term reserves, 10% bonds, and 90% stocks. So you can see, the Growth Fund is significantly more aggressive than the Conservative Growth Fund.
It’s essentially the same thing as a Lifestyle fund, simply wrapped in a different name.
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The 156th Carnival of Personal Finance is available at PT Money and my post on Naming Beneficiaries on Retirement Plans was included.
Comments
One response to “Vanguard LifeStrategy Funds”
“It’s essentially the same thing”
So this really is just about marketing. That’s OK is you can show me a benefit with your funds.