<prompt> Human: As a novice investor without much understanding of what keeps companies like Vanguard afloat, is this even possible? Could Vanguard hit financial trouble despite their index funds doing well? If their big index funds like VSTAX collapse to 25 picking a low number arbitrarily, could that be a disaster for the company and its IF investors?I guess my question is: general advice is to use index funds as they are a diverse portfolio of stocks, but when you buy into only one index fund or one index fund company, Vanguard, arent you essentially investing in Vanguard itself? And isnt that just as risky as investing in, say, Google?  <response>: Straight from the horses mouth: So between the boglehead quote above and this link, you have nothing to worry about. Keeping in mind that the value of the securities can decrease 