The Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS) is a popular option for investors. At present, over $12 billion of hard-earned money is invested in this exchange-traded fund (ETF).
And it isn't hard to see why it is popular.
Investors appear to like how the VAS ETF provides instant diversification to a portfolio with its 300 holdings.
These are the top 300 companies listed on the ASX, which Vanguard highlights provides access to long-term capital growth potential and regular income through distributions.
But has it been a good investment in 2023? How much would a $10,000 investment at the start of the year be worth today?
Has the VAS ETF been a good investment for ASX investors?
At the start of the year, investors could have picked up units in the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF for $87.70.
This means that if you had invested $10,000, you would have bought 114 units.
Today, the VAS ETF is trading at $89.62 on the ASX boards, which means that your 114 units would now have a market value of $10,216.68.
But, as I mentioned above, the ETF also pays distributions.
In 2023, a total of four quarterly dividends were paid to investors. These totalled $3.5038 per unit, which equates to an attractive yield on cost of approximately 4%.
This means that those 114 units received almost $400 in dividends, boosting the value of your investment to $10,616.11.
That's a return of $616.11 or 6.16%, which isn't too bad considering how turbulent financial markets have been this year. And with interest rates tipped to fall next year, there's every chance that the market (and this ETF) will make up for lost ground when that happens.
