Among the most popular ETFs available today, there is no shortage of discussion around the success of VOO. Considered one of Vanguard’s most successful funds right now, it stands to reason that many people are looking to invest in this position for the long term.
This is exactly the discussion one Redditor is having, according to a post they asked in r/ETFs. According to this Redditor, the goal is to buy VOO, “chill,” and allow the financial returns to pour into their bank account as the years go on. Is this a sound strategy? Let’s find out.
Should You VOO and Chill?
Understandably, this Redditor is hoping to find the right moment to buy into VOO and “chill,” which is another way of saying they want to buy the ETF and then do nothing but sit back and watch it grow and earn money as a result. For the most part, this is how ETFs work, you buy them and then sit back and watch them grow over time, which is why they have turned into such a popular investment vehicle for millions and millions of investors, retirees, and even members of the FIRE lifestyle.
When the Redditor posted this, VOO was trading in the 570s, and it has since gone up to $609 as of September 19, 2025. To be fair, the Redditor isn’t concerned about the individual trading price as they are trying to understand how they will make money over time.
The goal is to buy into VOO now, or sometime this year, and then sit on the investment for the next 20-30 years. Understandably, this individual doesn’t know the market well enough to properly determine if now is a good time to invest or not, so they have come to Reddit to look for some help and guidance.
Don’t Try to Time the Market
While I am not a financial advisor, and I would encourage this Redditor to speak to one, if I had a chance to sit down with them, my first piece of advice would be to never try to time the market. This is how people are quickly parted with their hard-earned money, as the market is as unpredictable as anything else you can imagine in your life.
If you or someone you knew could time the market, they would be wealthy beyond imagination. The reality is that you try to determine what is a good time to buy based on current market volatility, current events, real-time financial results, and a variety of other factors, but it’s an imperfect game, and it’s really more of an educated guess than anything else.
The Redditor asks if they should wait for a “big red day,” which likely means they should buy the next time the market has a big drop. This is certainly one scenario, and it’s one most investors trading on their own subscribe to most. It’s also the reason why connecting with a financial advisor, someone who knows how to game this out for you, is the best path forward.
Still, the bottom line is that trying to beat the market is complicated, risky, and most people who try to do this will not and don’t succeed.
You Should Buy Now
Here’s the thing that is most worth knowing, but VOO is a giant fund, so you aren’t buying just one stock, but a fund that is looking to equal the returns of the broader S&P 500 index, which has gone up on its own, 13% over the last 10 years on average.
Will VOO go down at some point? Yes, absolutely, it will inevitably see a drop, a potential split, and there’s going to be a change of what investments are held within the fund as well.
The thing is, VOO is averaging a 21.4% return over the last 3 years, and there is no reason to suspect this is going to change. The reason why you buy into an ETF is that the different sector holdings help balance out between tech, financial services, healthcare, energy, utilities, etc., so there is always an upside.
If the Redditor wants to play it safe, the best thing I can say is to try to dollar cost average by investing a fixed amount over the course of a period of time, picking up a block of shares at different dollar amounts. For example, the Redditor could buy today at $609, but this represents only 20% of their total investment strategy. The next time the stock drops to $601, they buy another block, and so on. This is called dollar cost averaging, and it helps you avoid buying at one share price and then being beholden to only that share price forevermore.
My big takeaway for this Redditor is that the good news is that VOO is going to go up over time, and so any investment today is going to look like a genius move in three years. Short of something catastrophic happening to the planet like a world-ending meteor strike, VOO is going to rise, and the Redditor will see returns that will grow over their 20-30 year period and hopefully in a way that gives them a fantastic retirement lifestyle.
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