VOO at 15: What $500/Month Since 2010 Looks Like Now
Fifteen years of dollar-cost averaging into VOO would have turned $500/month into roughly $330,000 — and the lesson isn't what you think.
If you had started dumping $500 a month into Vanguard's VOO the day it launched in 2010, you'd be sitting on around $330,000 today. That's through the 2020 COVID crash, the 2022 rate-hike bloodbath, and every other gut-punch the market threw at you. The number hits different when you realize you only contributed around $90,000 of your own cash. The market did the rest.
But here's the real story: the fund you pick matters a lot less than you probably think. VOO tracks the S&P 500. So does SPY. So does IVV. Over 15 years, the performance gap between them is nearly invisible. What actually decides how much you end up with is a detail most people gloss right over — how much of your $500 actually gets invested every single month versus sitting idle, getting eaten by fees, or getting mistimed.
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Dollar-cost averaging works because it removes you from the equation. You don't get to panic-sell in March 2020. You don't get to go all-in at the 2021 peak. The automatic, boring, monthly buy is the strategy. Consistency isn't a consolation prize — it's the whole game. Miss a few months, get charged unnecessary fees, or keep cash parked in your brokerage account uninvested, and you're quietly handing back thousands in future gains.
The tradeable takeaway here is simple: automate everything. Set the monthly buy, choose a zero-commission S&P 500 ETF with a rock-bottom expense ratio, and don't touch it. The 15-year VOO track record isn't an advertisement for one specific fund — it's an advertisement for staying in the market when everyone else is bailing. That discipline, compounded over time, is worth far more than picking the "perfect" ticker.
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