VWALX Vanguard High-Yield Tax-Exempt Fund Admiral Shares

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Vanguard average mutual fund expense ratio: 0.09%. Industry average mutual fund expense ratio: 0.50%. All averages are asset-weighted. Industry average excludes Vanguard. Sources: Vanguard and Morningstar, Inc., as of December 31, 2023.

Total returns: Short-term total return information is provided only as a service. Historical performance—particularly short-term performance—is no guarantee of future returns. Price, yield, and return on an actual investment will fluctuate, and you may have a gain or loss when you sell. Average annual returns include changes in price and reinvestments of dividends and capital gains. Since-inception returns for less than 1 year and year-to-date returns aren't annualized. Index performance is provided as a benchmark but isn't illustrative of any particular investment. You can't invest in an index.

Standardized returns: To see quarterly fee-adjusted returns, refer to the Price & Performance details.

Expense ratios: Expense ratios are displayed on Overview. For investments that are less than 1 fiscal year old, expense ratios are estimated.

Risk: All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Funds that concentrate on a relatively narrow market sector face the risk of higher share-price volatility. Investments in stocks or bonds issued by non-U.S. companies are subject to risks including country/regional risk and currency risk.

An investment in the fund could lose money over short or long periods of time. You should expect the fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range. The fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the fund’s performance, and the level of risk may vary based on market conditions:

• Credit risk, which is the chance that a bond issuer will fail to pay interest or principal in a timely manner or that negative perceptions of the issuer’s ability to make such payments will cause the price of that bond to decline. Credit risk should be relatively moderate for the fund because it invests a portion of its assets in moderate to low-quality bonds.
• Interest rate risk, which is the chance that bond prices overall will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk should be high for the fund because it invests primarily in long-term bonds, whose prices are more sensitive to interest rate changes than are the prices of shorter-term bonds.
• Call risk, which is the chance that during periods of falling interest rates, issuers of callable bonds may call (redeem) securities with higher coupon rates or interest rates before their maturity dates. The fund would then lose any price appreciation above the bond’s call price and would be forced to reinvest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the fund’s income. Such redemptions and subsequent reinvestments would also increase the fund’s portfolio turnover rate. Call risk is generally high for high-yield bond funds.
• Extension risk, which is the chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall. Extension risk is generally high for high-yield bond funds.
• Income risk, which is the chance that the fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Income risk should be low for the fund because it invests primarily in long-term bonds.
• Liquidity risk, which is the chance that the fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.
• Manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the fund to underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.
• Tax risk, which is the chance that all or a portion of the tax-exempt income from municipal bonds held by the fund will be declared taxable, possibly with retroactive effect, because of unfavorable changes in tax laws, adverse interpretations by the Internal Revenue Service or state or local tax authorities, or noncompliant conduct of a bond issuer.
• Derivatives risk. The fund may invest in derivatives and structured products such as tender option bonds and long-term municipal bonds combined with a demand feature (e.g., variable rate demand notes or VRDNs), which may involve risks different from, and possibly greater than, those of investments directly in the underlying securities or assets.
• Regional risk, which is the chance that economic, political, or regulatory occurrences within a certain state may adversely affect the value of securities offered by issuers located within that state. Because the fund may invest a large portion of its assets in securities located in any one state, the fund’s performance may be hurt disproportionately by the poor performance of its investments in that area.