3 ETFs to Buy Now for Safety While the markets are experiencing a summer rebound — the SP 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average in July had their largest monthly gains since 2020 — it’s never a bad idea to consider safe exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for a portion of your entire investment portfolio. How much you commit to safe ETFs depends on your risk tolerance. Also, what you consider to be safe is very subjective. Some investors might consider SP 500 index ETFs to be a safe holding. Others might consider ETFs guaranteed by the federal government, such as Treasury inflation-protected securities ( TIPS ), as safe investments. For this article, I’m going to assume that if you’re genuinely looking for safe ETFs to buy, you’re interested in something slightly less risky than the SP 500. That could possibly include a fixed-income ETF or something a little less aggressive. To qualify for inclusion as one of the three ETFs to buy now for safety, I identified two main criteria. These ETFs are all up year-to-date (YTD) and possess a five-year annual total return of at least 9%.