Investment Strategy
The Portfolio invests in three Vanguard bond index funds and one Vanguard short-term reserves account that results in an allocation of 25% of assets to bonds and 75% of assets to short-term reserves. The percentages of the Portfolio's assets allocated to each fund are:
Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund Institutional Shares 11.50%
Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund Institutional Shares 7.50%
Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund Institutional Shares 6.00%
Vanguard Short-Term Reserves Account 75.00%
Through its investment in Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund, the Portfolio also indirectly invests in U.S. bonds. The Fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Index. This Index represents a wide spectrum of public, investment-grade, taxable, fixed income securities in the United States—including government, corporate, and international dollar-denominated bonds, as well as mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities—all with maturities of more than 1 year. The Fund invests by sampling the Index, meaning that it holds a broadly diversified collection of securities that, in the aggregate, approximates the full Index in terms of key risk factors and characteristics. All of the Fund's investments will be selected through the sampling process, and at least 80% of the Fund's assets will be invested in bonds held in the Index. The Fund maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity consistent with that of the Index, which generally ranges between 5 and 10 years.
Through its investment in Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund, the Portfolio also indirectly invests in international bonds. The Fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate ex-USD Float Adjusted RIC Capped Index (USD Hedged), which provides a broad-based measure of the global, investment-grade, fixed-rate debt markets. The Index includes government, government agency, corporate, and securitized non-U.S. investment-grade fixed income investments, all issued in currencies other than the U.S. dollar and with maturities of more than one year. The Index is capped to comply with investment company diversification standards of the Internal Revenue Code, which state that, at the close of each fiscal quarter, a fund's (1) exposure to any particular bond issuer may not exceed 25% of the fund's assets, and (2) aggregate exposure to issuers that individually constitute 5% or more of the fund may not exceed 50% of the fund's assets. To help enforce these limits, if the Index, on the last business day of any month, were to have greater than 20% exposure to any particular bond issuer, or greater than 48% aggregate exposure to issuers that individually constitute 5% or more of the Index, then the excess would be reallocated to bonds of other issuers represented in the Index. The Index methodology is not designed to satisfy the diversification requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940. The Fund will attempt to hedge its foreign currency exposure, primarily through the use of foreign currency exchange forward contracts, in order to correlate to the returns of the Index, which is U.S. dollar hedged. Such hedging is intended to minimize the currency risk associated with investment in bonds denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. The Fund invests by sampling the Index, meaning that it holds a range of securities that, in the aggregate, approximates the full Index in terms of key risk factors and other characteristics. All of the Fund's investments will be selected through the sampling process and, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund's assets will be invested in bonds included in the Index. The Fund maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity consistent with that of the Index, which generally ranges between 5 and 10 years.
Through its investment in Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund, the Portfolio also indirectly invests in inflation-indexed bonds. The Fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) 0-5 Year Index. The Index is a market-capitalization-weighted index that includes all inflation-protected public obligations issued by the U.S. Treasury with remaining maturities of less than 5 years. The Fund attempts to replicate the target index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the securities that make up the Index, holding each security in approximately the same proportion as its weighting in the Index. The Fund maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity consistent with that of the target index, which generally does not exceed 3 years.
Through its investment in Vanguard Short-Term Reserves Account, the Portfolio indirectly invests in funding agreements issued by one or more insurance companies, synthetic investment contracts, and shares of Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund. Funding agreements are interest-bearing contracts that are structured to preserve principal and accumulate interest earnings over the life of the investment. The agreements pay interest at a fixed minimum rate and have fixed maturity dates that normally range from 2 to 5 years. Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund invests primarily in high-quality, short-term money market instruments. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund's assets are invested in securities issued by the U.S. government and its agencies and instrumentalities. Although these securities are high-quality, most of the securities held by the Fund are neither guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury nor supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. To be considered high quality, a security must be determined by Vanguard to present minimal credit risk based in part on a consideration of maturity, portfolio diversification, portfolio liquidity, and credit quality. The Fund maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity of 60 days or less and a dollar-weighted average life of 120 days or less. Under money market reforms, government money market funds are required to invest at least 99.5% of their total assets in cash, government securities, and/or repurchase agreements that are collateralized solely by government securities or cash (collectively, government securities). The Fund generally invests 100% of its assets in government securities and therefore will satisfy the 99.5% requirement for designation as a government money market fund.
Note: It is possible to lose money by investing in Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund. Although the Fund seeks to preserve the value of a shareholder's investment at $1.00 per share, it cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The Fund's sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Fund, and shareholders should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Fund at any time.
Investment Risks
The Portfolio is subject to interest rate risk, income risk, prepayment risk, extension risk, call risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, currency hedging risk, country/regional risk, and derivatives risk. The Portfolio is also subject to nondiversification risk (through its investment in Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund), income fluctuation risk (through its Investment in Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund), and manager risk (through its investment in Vanguard Short-Term Reserves Account, which invests a portion of its assets in Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund).
