Interface Walkthrough
Screens and categories, at the level of what each button means. Broker-neutral, no fund names — the choosing stays yours.
At Vanguard, deposits settle into the account's settlement fund — a money market fund shown as its own line on your balances page. It is the waiting room, not the destination.
From the account: Buy and sell → Buy funds. You choose the fund, then the dollar amount. Vanguard mutual fund orders price at the day's close.
Automatic investing is set from the account's transfers area: fixed dollars from your bank into a chosen fund, on a repeating schedule.
Every reader sees the same three categories. This page teaches the kinds — it never picks one for you. Picking one for you, from your situation, is what advisers are licensed to do.
One fund built around a year — roughly your retirement year. It holds a mix of stock and bond funds and slowly shifts steadier as the year approaches. Different companies run theirs differently and charge differently.
Funds that copy a published list — for example, a list of large US companies, or a list spanning the whole stock market — instead of picking winners. Usually the lowest yearly cost on the menu, because copying is cheap to run.
Cash-like funds holding very short-term loans. Steady value, modest yield, barely any movement. This is where uninvested money often sits — parked, not growing.
Interfaces change their layouts over time; the categories and the order do not. If a screen name differs slightly from this page, follow the category, not the pixel.
The Filled Plan pack, the first-account walkthrough pack, the first-30-days plan, the full catch-up tables, the decoder card deck, and the order workbook — one pack, one-time payment.