S&P 500 on track for another year of 20%-plus returns. The benchmark index has produced total returns (including dividends) of nearly 25% as of this writing. That follows a total return of more than 26% in 2023.

For growth investors, rather than picking stocks individually, a safer approach nowadays may be to invest in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that is less vulnerable to a single investment and can still generate solid returns in the long run.

ETFs are buckets of individual companies traded under one ticker symbol, offering instant portfolio diversification. Some of them follow stock market indexes, while others reflect a specific theme or strategy.

Many investors know about the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, one of the easiest ways to invest in the broader market. But Vanguard actually has more than 80 different exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that meet a varied list of investor criteria.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) had a strong performance in 2024 as inflows surged by over $1 trillion. Most of these inflows were in active and crypto-focused funds like Bitcoin’s IBIT and FBTC. So, this article looks at some of the best ETFs for value investors to buy and hold in 2025.