Vanguard Exchange-Traded Funds

Vanguard is a brand name. It's arguably the brand name in retail investing. Their claim to fame: John Bogle, pioneer of the index fund, the unmanaged, non-alpha-focused investment that stopped ripping off investors who tried to beat the market. It instead said, "It's ok to be the market, because the market is good...the market goes up over time...the market is your friennnnnd."

So, ETFs are a slightly different flavor of unmanaged money versus index funds, but their performance is nearly identical. And Vanguard is the big, fat factory that makes the most of 'em. For managing a grand of your money, they'll charge you a measly 4 bucks or less. Heckuva deal.