Best Long-Term ETFs to Buy and Hold

Understanding Long-Term Growth ETFs

Exchange-traded funds have quietly become the default way most people build long-term wealth. Money keeps pouring in: ETF inflows passed US$750 billion in the first half of 2026 alone, putting the industry on pace to challenge the record US$1.5 trillion set in 2025. In a symbolic shift, Vanguard overtook BlackRock’s iShares in mid-2026 to become the largest ETF provider in the world.

Growth ETFs focus on companies expected to expand revenue and earnings faster than the market — typically technology, healthcare and consumer discretionary names that reinvest profits rather than pay them out. Unlike value ETFs, which hunt for cheap stocks with solid fundamentals, growth ETFs are betting on the appreciation of share prices rather than on income.

But “long-term ETF” and “growth ETF” are not the same thing. A portfolio built only from US large-cap growth funds is not a diversified portfolio — it is one concentrated bet wearing eight different tickers. The list below covers the full toolkit: a core index fund, growth tilts, international exposure, small caps, dividend growers and bonds. How you weight them matters far more than which one you pick.

All fees, fund sizes and returns in this guide were verified in July 2026. Fund data changes daily — confirm current figures on the provider’s own page before you buy.

Where Markets Stand in 2026

Context matters when you’re deciding what to buy and hold. As of mid-July 2026:

• The S&P 500 is up roughly 9.7% year to date, with second-quarter earnings growth running strong.
• Valuations are the pressure point — the index’s forward P/E sits near 20.4 versus a 10-year average of 19.0.
• The bigger story is rotation. Over the past 12 months, international stocks (+24%) and US small caps (+33%) have outrun US large-cap growth (+15%). The parts of the portfolio that felt like dead weight for a decade have been the ones carrying it.

That last point is the single best argument for owning more than one fund. Nobody predicted the rotation, and nobody can tell you when it ends.

Best ETFs for Long-Term Growth (2026)

Verified figures as of 17 July 2026:

Long-run track record

Ten-year annualised total returns (dividends reinvested, to mid-2026). Read these as history, not forecast:

Notice how differently the two columns rank the same funds. A decade of megacap dominance put QQQ and VUG on top; the last twelve months flipped the order. That gap is the whole reason diversification exists.

1. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV)

The default first holding for most long-term portfolios. IVV tracks the S&P 500 — 508 lines representing the largest listed US companies across technology, healthcare, financials and industrials.

• Why it works: one trade buys you a stake in Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, JPMorgan and 500-odd others, rebalanced for you as the index changes.
• Cost and liquidity: a 0.03% expense ratio (US$3 a year per US$10,000) and roughly US$833 billion in assets mean spreads are about as tight as ETFs get.
• Watch for: the S&P 500 is no longer as diversified as it looks. The top 10 holdings are 37.4% of the fund, and the index’s forward P/E of ~20.4 is above its 10-year average.

2. Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG)

VUG tracks the CRSP US Large Growth index and is now the cheapest fund on this list at 0.03% — Vanguard trimmed the fee from 0.04%, quietly making it cheaper than Schwab’s rival product.

• Growth-centric: 151 holdings, led by Nvidia (12.6%), Apple (11.6%) and Microsoft (7.6%).
• Scale: around US$222 billion in the ETF share class.
• The catch: the top 10 holdings are 60.3% of the fund. VUG is far more concentrated than most buyers realise, and at a P/E near 38 it carries premium pricing and sharper drawdowns.
• Note on the price: VUG executed a 6-for-1 forward share split on 21 April 2026. If your chart shows the price falling to roughly a sixth of its previous level overnight, that’s the split, not a crash — the fund now trades around US$85 instead of the low hundreds.

3. Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF (SCHG)

SCHG tracks the Dow Jones US Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index and holds 197 stocks — a slightly broader net than VUG.

• Cost: 0.04%, marginally above VUG. Older articles (including our previous edition) had this backwards; Vanguard’s fee cut reversed the ranking.
• Concentration: top 10 at 51.4%, meaningfully less top-heavy than VUG’s 60.3%, with a lower P/E of ~34.
• Note on the price: SCHG split 4-for-1 in October 2024, so pre-2025 price charts aren’t comparable to today’s ~US$34 quote.
• Bottom line: VUG and SCHG are 90% the same trade. Own one, not both.

4. Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS)

VXUS holds 8,807 stocks across developed and emerging markets outside the US — Europe, Japan, Taiwan, India, China, Brazil and beyond.

• Fee cut: the expense ratio is now 0.05%, down from 0.10% — one of the largest proportional cuts on this list.
• Valuation gap: a P/E near 15.9 against IVV’s 27.6, and a 2.63% yield versus 1.10%.
• Its moment: up 24.3% over the past 12 months after a decade of trailing (~9.9% annualised). Currency swings, politics and slower earnings growth remain real risks.
• Why hold it: for Malaysian and Singaporean readers, an all-US portfolio means your salary, your property and your investments all ride the same handful of global risk factors.

5. Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ)

QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100 and remains the most recognisable growth ETF on the market, at roughly US$480 billion.

• Structural change: on 22 December 2025, after a shareholder vote, QQQ converted from a 26-year-old unit investment trust into a standard open-end ETF. The fee fell from 0.20% to 0.18% — about US$70 million a year saved across shareholders.
• Why the conversion matters more than the fee: as a UIT, QQQ was barred from reinvesting income or lending securities. It can now do both, and securities-lending revenue can offset part of the stated expense ratio.
• Considerations: at 0.18%, QQQ still costs six times VUG. It excludes financials by index construction and its top 10 make up 45.8% of assets. For long-term buy-and-hold, the cheaper sibling QQQM tracks the same index at a lower fee — worth comparing if you aren’t trading options.

6. Schwab U.S. Small-Cap ETF (SCHA)

SCHA holds 1,706 small-cap US companies and became cheaper on 11 June 2026, when Schwab cut the fee to 0.03%.

• Genuine diversification: the top 10 holdings are just 11.8% of the fund — the least concentrated equity ETF here.
• Performance: +33.4% over the past 12 months, the best one-year showing on this list, against a modest ~11.6% ten-year annualised.
• Correcting the record: earlier editions of this article listed SCHA at US$130 billion. The fund actually holds about US$22.3 billion — small, though still liquid enough for retail investors.
• Risks: small caps are more sensitive to interest rates and recessions, and a meaningful slice of the index is unprofitable companies. For a deeper look, see our guide to Russell 2000 ETFs.

7. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG)

VIG owns 341 US companies with long records of raising dividends — a screen that tends to surface profitable, cash-generative businesses.

• Fee cut: down to 0.04% effective 2 February 2026, from 0.06%.
• Character: a 1.51% yield, ~US$108 billion in assets, and a ~13.5% ten-year annualised return that lands between growth funds and bonds.
• The trade-off: VIG will lag in a runaway tech rally. That’s the point — it’s the equity holding that hurts less when growth cracks.
• Local alternative: if you want dividends closer to home, compare with Malaysian blue-chip dividend stocks and Malaysian REITs, which pay in ringgit and skip US withholding entirely.

8. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG)

AGG spans 13,277 investment-grade US bonds — Treasuries, agency mortgages and corporates.

• Role: ballast. AGG yields 4.01%, which is a far better starting point than the near-zero yields of 2020-21.
• Correcting the record: previous editions listed US$570 billion in assets. AGG actually holds about US$135.9 billion.
• Reality check: AGG’s ten-year annualised return is roughly 1.5% — the 2022 rate shock is still inside that window. Bonds are there to reduce how much your portfolio falls, not to grow it.
• Who needs it: if you’re 25 with a 30-year horizon, a large bond allocation mostly costs you money. If you’ll need the cash within five years, it’s essential.

What Changed in 2025–2026

If you last reviewed your ETF holdings a year or two ago, five things have shifted:

1. A fee war broke out. VXUS halved to 0.05%, VIG dropped to 0.04% (February 2026), SCHA to 0.03% (June 2026), VUG to 0.03% and QQQ to 0.18%. Nothing about the funds changed — they simply became cheaper to own.
2. QQQ was restructured from a unit investment trust to an open-end ETF on 22 December 2025, unlocking securities lending and income reinvestment.
3. Share splits confused a lot of charts. Vanguard split five ETFs on 21 April 2026 — VUG 6:1, VOOG 6:1, MGK 5:1, VO 4:1 and VGT 8:1. Splits change nothing about value or tax; they only lower the per-share price.
4. Leadership rotated away from US megacap growth toward international and small-cap stocks.
5. Vanguard passed iShares to become the world’s largest ETF provider, a milestone driven largely by relentless fee compression.

The Overlap Trap: Why Four Growth ETFs Isn’t Diversification

This is the most common and most expensive mistake we see. An investor buys IVV, adds VUG because growth has done well, adds SCHG because it looked cheap, then adds QQQ for tech exposure — and believes they now hold four funds.

They don’t. Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Broadcom and Meta sit near the top of all four. Layer VUG (top 10 = 60.3%) on top of QQQ (45.8%) on top of IVV (37.4%) and you haven’t diversified — you’ve quietly leveraged a single bet on about seven companies.

A practical test before adding any fund: open both funds’ top-10 holdings side by side. If more than half the names repeat, you’re buying the same risk twice and paying two expense ratios for it.

Real diversification on this list comes from the funds that look boring — VXUS (top 10 = 14.8%), SCHA (11.8%) and AGG. They are what makes the portfolio behave differently from the S&P 500.

How to Choose a Long-Term ETF: A 6-Step Framework

1. Choose the core before the tilts

Start with one broad fund — an S&P 500 or total-market ETF — and make it 60–80% of your equity allocation. Everything else is a deliberate deviation you should be able to justify in a sentence.

2. Check overlap before you add anything

Two funds with the same top holdings give you concentration, not diversification. Compare top-10 lists first.

3. Count total cost, not just the expense ratio

Your real annual cost is expense ratio + dividend withholding tax + bid-ask spread + currency conversion. For an investor in Malaysia or Singapore, withholding tax is usually ten times larger than the expense ratio. More on this below.

4. Match bonds to your actual time horizon

Money you need within five years shouldn’t be in equity ETFs at all. Money you won’t touch for 20 years barely needs bonds. Be honest about which pot you’re filling.

5. Decide accumulating versus distributing

US-listed ETFs pay cash dividends you must manually reinvest. Ireland-domiciled accumulating funds reinvest internally, which removes the friction and the temptation to spend the income.

6. Automate, then leave it alone

Set a fixed monthly amount, use limit orders, and rebalance once a year. The gap between what funds return and what investors actually earn is almost entirely behavioural.

ETF Investment Strategies for Long-Term Growth

1. Buy and hold

Compounding does the work, and you avoid the transaction costs and taxes that come with frequent trading. The main requirement is tolerating drawdowns without selling — see our comparison of trading versus investing if you’re unsure which camp you’re in.

2. Dollar-cost averaging

Invest a fixed sum at regular intervals regardless of price. It smooths your entry price and removes market timing from the equation. If your budget is small, fractional shares let you buy in with amounts well under one full share.

3. Rebalancing

Once a year, or when an allocation drifts more than five percentage points from target, sell a slice of what has run and top up what has lagged. It enforces buying low without requiring a forecast.

4. Core-satellite

Keep 80–90% in broad index funds and reserve the rest for conviction positions — a thematic fund, individual long-term stocks, an AI ETF or gold ETFs. You get to express a view without letting it sink the portfolio.

For Malaysian and Singaporean Investors: The 30% Problem

Almost every “best long-term ETF” article is written for a US audience, and following it literally from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore quietly costs you money. Two issues matter.

Dividend withholding tax

The United States has no comprehensive income tax treaty with Malaysia or Singapore. Dividends paid by US-listed funds to residents of both countries are therefore withheld at the full statutory rate of 30%, and it is deducted at source whether or not you file a W-8BEN. Be sceptical of blogs claiming a 15% rate — you can check the current treaty list yourself on the IRS treaty page.

US estate tax — the bigger risk

Non-resident aliens receive an exemption of only US$60,000 on US-situs assets, including US-listed ETFs. Above that, estates can face rates ranging up to 40%. An investor who patiently builds a US$300,000 IVV position has built a meaningful estate-tax exposure alongside it.

The Ireland-domiciled alternative

Ireland has a tax treaty with the US, so Irish-domiciled UCITS funds pay 15% withholding at fund level, and because the fund is an Irish security it sits outside US estate tax entirely. Common London-listed equivalents:

What the difference actually costs

IVV yields 1.10%. Run the numbers on a RM100,000 lump sum, assuming 8% gross annual returns:

• IVV (US-listed): 0.03% fee + 0.33% lost to 30% withholding = 0.36% annual drag
• CSPX (Irish UCITS): 0.07% fee + 0.165% lost to 15% withholding = 0.235% annual drag

That 0.125-point gap looks trivial. Compounded, it isn’t: roughly RM2,400 after 10 years, RM10,200 after 20 years and RM32,300 after 30 years — and that’s before considering estate tax. The higher headline expense ratio is the cheaper fund once tax is included.

The honest counterpoint: US-listed ETFs still win on spreads, liquidity and options availability, and if you’re investing small amounts over a short horizon the difference is negligible. UCITS funds also carry wider spreads and often a currency-conversion step. The case for Irish domicile strengthens as your portfolio grows.

Where to buy

Interactive Brokers, moomoo, Webull and Rakuten Trade all offer US markets to Malaysian and Singaporean investors; for London-listed UCITS funds you’ll need a broker with LSE access, such as Interactive Brokers or Saxo. Our guide to the best trading platforms in Malaysia compares fees and market access in detail.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Stacking four overlapping growth funds and calling it diversification.
• Buying the ten-year return. That number describes a decade of megacap dominance that has already happened.
• Ignoring withholding and estate tax — for most Malaysian and Singaporean investors these dwarf expense ratios.
• Mistaking a share split for a crash. VUG’s April 2026 6:1 split and SCHG’s 2024 4:1 split both look alarming on an unadjusted chart.
• Trading in the first or last 15 minutes, when ETF spreads are widest. Use limit orders, never market orders.
• Expecting growth from AGG. A ~1.5% ten-year annualised return is what ballast looks like.
• Selling during drawdowns. Every fund here has had losing years. The returns above only accrued to people who sat through them.

Tax Considerations for Long-Term ETF Investors

Malaysia: capital gains on listed shares and foreign ETFs are not taxed for individuals. Foreign-sourced income remitted by individuals is exempt through 31 December 2036, and separately, a 2% dividend tax applies to Malaysian-sourced dividend income above RM100,000 from year of assessment 2025. The 30% US withholding is deducted at source and is not recoverable.

Singapore: no capital gains tax and no tax on foreign dividends received by individuals. As with Malaysia, US withholding is deducted before the money reaches you.

Both: because neither country taxes these gains, the tax you can actually control is the US withholding and estate-tax exposure — which is precisely why fund domicile matters more here than in the US-focused articles that dominate search results.

If trading frequency starts to resemble a business, tax authorities in both countries can treat profits as income. Buy-and-hold investors rarely have this problem; frequent traders should take advice.

Read also: How to Invest in ETFs: A Beginner’s Guide

Conclusion

The best long-term ETF portfolio is duller than most people expect: a broad core fund, some international exposure, a small-cap sleeve, and bonds sized to when you’ll need the money. Fees across every fund on this list fell in 2025–2026, which is a genuine tailwind — but for investors in Malaysia and Singapore, choosing the right domicile is worth more than shaving another basis point off the expense ratio.

Pick a core, check for overlap before adding anything, count tax as part of your cost, and then do the hardest part: leave it alone for a decade.

All figures verified July 2026 against fund providers and exchange data. Fees, assets and returns change — confirm with the provider before investing. Sources include iShares and Vanguard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Disclaimer: This article is published by KayaToday for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. All figures were verified in July 2026 and will change over time. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions. ETF investments carry risk, including loss of capital, and you should only invest what you can afford to lose.