Vanguard Short-Term Investment Grade

Objective And Strategy

Objective
Current income while maintaining limited price volatility.

Strategy

The Portfolio invests in a variety of high-quality and, to a lesser extent, medium-quality fixed income securities, at least 80% of which will be short- and intermediate-term investment-grade securities. High quality fixed income securities are those rated the equivalent of A3 or better by Moody's Investors Services, Inc., or by another independent rating agency; medium-quality fixed income securities are those rated the equivalent of Baa1, Baa2 or Baa3 by Moody's or another independent rating agency. (Investment-grade fixed income securities are those rated the equivalent of Baa3 and above by Moody's.) The Portfolio is expected to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 1 to 4 years.
Low Cost Fund

Principal Risks

* This portfolio invests (or may invest) in securities of companies with micro-, small-, or mid-capitalization. Any investment in micro-, small-, or mid-capitalization companies involves greater risk than that customarily associated with investments in larger, more established companies because of the greater business risks of smaller size, limited markets and financial resources, narrower product lines, and frequent lack of management depth. As such, micro- or small-cap companies may be more subject to erratic and abrupt market movements than securities of larger, more established companies.

* This portfolio can leverage or use leveraged instruments or derivatives. Portfolios that use leverage, that is, borrow money, are subject to the risk that the cost of borrowing money to leverage will exceed the returns for the securities purchased or that the securities purchased may actually go down in value. Thus, the portfolio's net asset value can decrease more quickly than if the portfolio had not borrowed. Portfolios that use leveraged instruments or derivatives such as futures, options and swap agreements, may expose the portfolio to additional risks that it would not be subject to if it invested directly in the securities underlying those derivatives. The more a portfolio invests in leveraged instruments, the more the leverage will magnify any gains or losses on those investments.

* Credit risk is the risk that the issuer of a security may be unable to make interest payments and/or repay principal when due. A downgrade to an issuer's credit rating or a perceived change in an issuer's financial strength may affect a security's value, and thus, impact the VA Short-Term Fixed Portfolio's performance.

* During periods of declining interest rates, the issuer of a security may exercise its option to prepay principal earlier than scheduled, forcing the portfolio to reinvest in lower yielding securities.

* Generally, a security is liquid if the Portfolio is able to sell the security at a fair price within a reasonable time. Liquidity is generally related to the market trading volume for a particular security.

* Rising interest rates will generally cause the prices of bonds and other debt securities to fall. Longer maturity debt securities may be subject to greater price fluctuations than shorter maturity debt securities. In addition, falling interest rates may cause an issuer to redeem, call or refinance a debt security before its stated maturity, which may result in the fund having to reinvest the process in lower yielding securities.

* The investment adviser to the fund actively managed the fund's investments. Consequently, the fund is subject to the risk that the methods and analyses employed by the investment adviser in this process may not produce the desired results. This could cause the fund to lose value or its investment results to lag relevant benchmarks or other funds with similar objectives.