Regular buy into my core holding today: the Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF, accumulation version, ticker VUAG. This is one of my two main holdings alongside VWRP — VUAG and VWRP are the main engines and my main go-to, the two I add to every single week without fail, the powerplant that does the heavy lifting for my entire pension strategy.
VUAG is the Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (Acc). It's listed on the London Stock Exchange, trades in sterling, and tracks the S&P 500 Index — 500 of the largest publicly-traded companies in the United States. The accumulation share class means all dividends are automatically reinvested within the fund. No cash lands in my account. No decision to make. Just pure, uninterrupted compounding. The ongoing charge is 0.07% — seven basis points. On a £100,000 holding, Vanguard takes £70 a year. The other 99.93% of the compounding belongs to me.
Why is this my core holding? Three reasons. First: breadth. I'm not betting on a single company or sector. I own Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Berkshire Hathaway, and 493 others — all in one fund. Second: cost. At seven basis points, the fee drag is essentially zero over my investment horizon. Third: simplicity. I don't have to decide which US stock to buy. I don't have to rebalance. I just buy the index every week and let the American economy do what it has done for over a century — grow, innovate, and generate profits.
Is it boring? Yes. Is it effective? Also yes. The combination of a broadly diversified index, an accumulation share class that auto-reinvests dividends, a rock-bottom fee, and a weekly buying habit sustained over decades — that's the entire strategy. Everything else in my portfolio — the global trackers, the bond ETFs, the individual shares, the thematic pies — is built around this core. VUAG and VWRP are the main engines and my main go-to. I just keep feeding them.
Today's buy was routine. No market timing. No clever entry point. Just the weekly top-up, executed the same way I execute it every week. Log into Trading 212, navigate to the SIPP, add to VUAG. Done. The less excitement involved, the better my long-term results have tended to be.
As always: this is what I did with my own money. Not a recommendation. All investing carries risk — you can lose money, and past performance doesn't predict future returns. The S&P 500 is concentrated in US equities and can be volatile. Currency fluctuations between sterling and the dollar will affect your returns as a UK investor. Do your own research.