VEQT vs VGRO.
All stocks, or 80/20 with bonds? The numbers side by side, then our take.
VEQT and VGRO, side by side
Where the money goes
VGRO swaps about a fifth of the mix for bonds.
$10,000 in each, since Feb 2019.
VEQT finished about $4,502 ahead.
Drag across the chart to compare any date.
Only the stretch both funds existed. Payouts reinvested. Past results only.
It’s really a question about bonds.
VEQT is all stocks. VGRO is about 80% stocks and 20% bonds. The bonds make the ride smoother and the long-run return a bit lower, so the right pick depends on your timeline and how you’d take a big drop, not on which fund is better.
What we’d do
Be honest about how you’d feel in a 30% drop. If you’d sell, or you’ll need the money within about 15 years, VGRO’s bonds are cheap insurance. If you’d hold and the money can sit longer, an all-stock fund has historically come out ahead. The best fund is the one you can hold through the worst days.
Point by point
Tally: VEQT 1VGRO 3Tie 1
- Long-run growthAn all-stock mix has historically beaten 80/20 over ten years or more.Winner: VEQT
- Smoother rideThe bonds soften big drops by roughly 5 to 8 points.Winner: VGRO
- CostBoth charge a 0.17% management fee since Vanguard’s late-2025 cut, and the MERs, 0.22% and 0.20%, are too close to matter.Winner: Tie
- Staying investedA fund you can hold through a crash beats one you sell at the bottom.Winner: VGRO
- What it holdsVGRO adds real bonds, a different kind of asset.Winner: VGRO
Our opinion, built on public fund data we update every quarter. Not financial advice; your situation may differ.
Small fees, long time.
Same money, same growth, different fee. Move the sliders to see how much the gap adds up to. Assumes 6% a year before fees.
More in your pocket with VGRO. Real, but small next to picking a fund you’ll actually keep.
Five more, same math.
The figure on each row is VEQT’s lead in growth, in points, since both funds existed.
Asked a lot.
Not investment advice.
Both are all-stock, worldwide funds for long-term Canadian investors. The differences are the provider (Vanguard or iShares) and the mix: XEQT holds less Canada, 25% against 29.6%. Both charge a 0.17% management fee since the late-2025 cuts, and they’ve performed very similarly.
A lower fee means you keep more, all else equal. But a 0.02% gap, like the one between VEQT and XEQT, is about $20 a year on $100,000. Don’t let a tiny fee gap be the only reason you choose.
Smaller funds can have slightly wider trading spreads. ZEQT holds about $591M against VEQT’s $15.7B. For most people buying and holding with market orders during the day, the difference is negligible.
It depends on how you handle drops. VEQT is all stocks: more growth, bigger swings. VGRO adds 20% bonds for a smoother ride. Neither is better for everyone.
VFV holds only the 500 largest U.S. companies. It has no Canadian, international or emerging-market stocks. It’s a great fund, but it’s one market.
Both cover the global stock market. VEQT weights by company size. CAGE leans toward smaller, cheaper and more profitable companies. CAGE costs more: 0.28% against 0.22%.
Sort of. It doesn’t pick stocks on opinion, but it does follow rules that tilt away from the plain market. Think factor investing rather than stock picking.
Only if you really believe in the size and value premiums. They’ve paid off over long periods, but they’ve also vanished for ten years or more, most recently from 2010 to 2020. If you’d sell CAGE during a long stretch of lagging the index, you’d do worse than holding VEQT.
Yes. Some people use VEQT as a core and add CAGE on the side. Just know a 50/50 split dilutes the tilt and raises your overall fee.
The U.S. has had a historic run. It hasn’t always been this way: from 2000 to 2009 the S&P 500 went roughly nowhere while other markets grew. VEQT covers you if the U.S. doesn’t lead forever.
VFV costs 0.09% against VEQT’s 0.22%. On $100,000 that’s about $130 a year. Real, but small next to the bigger question: one market or the whole world.
Partly. S&P 500 companies earn about 40% of their revenue abroad, but their shares still move with the U.S. market, U.S. rules and U.S. interest rates. Owning companies listed around the world, as VEQT does, spreads both.
Common, but it’s a deliberate bet on more U.S. VEQT already holds about 45% U.S. A small VFV side position is fine if you mean to make that bet.
You’d be doubling up. VUN is one of VEQT’s building blocks, about 45% of the fund, so VEQT already owns it. Adding more only raises your U.S. share. That’s fine if it’s a bet you mean to make.