Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-32% $25.03$25.03
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: DOGU&BATI
$16.56$16.56
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: thebookbunny72
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
Common Sense on Mutual Funds: Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition Hardcover – December 1, 2009
Purchase options and add-ons
Since the first edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds was published in 1999, much has changed, and no one is more aware of this than mutual fund pioneer John Bogle. Now, in this completely updated Second Edition, Bogle returns to take another critical look at the mutual fund industry and help investors navigate their way through the staggering array of investment alternatives that are available to them.
Written in a straightforward and accessible style, this reliable resource examines the fundamentals of mutual fund investing in today's turbulent market environment and offers timeless advice in building an investment portfolio. Along the way, Bogle shows you how simplicity and common sense invariably trump costly complexity, and how a low cost, broadly diversified portfolio is virtually assured of outperforming the vast majority of Wall Street professionals over the long-term.
- Written by respected mutual fund industry legend John C. Bogle
- Discusses the timeless fundamentals of investing that apply in any type of market
- Reflects on the structural and regulatory changes in the mutual fund industry
- Other titles by Bogle: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing and Enough.
Securing your financial future has never seemed more difficult, but you'll be a better investor for having read the Second Edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds.
- Reading age1 year and up
- Print length622 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
- PublisherJohn Wiley & Sons Inc
- Publication dateDecember 1, 2009
- ISBN-100470138130
- ISBN-13978-0470138137
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Common Sense on Mutual Funds," by John Bogle, inventor of the retail index fund and founder of the Vanguard Group. It's the best book ever on fund investing, just updated for new investors. The case for indexing is rock solid, as you'll see here. It's the only strategy that works, long term."
--Jane's Book Club, http: //janebryantquinn.com
"Never before [have] I seen a book that so openly and successfully juxtaposed that which was said against that which actually happened over the period of a decade. . . As a long-time believer in low cost indexing, I didn't think I'd learn much from this book. I was wrong! Reading this book offers investors a glimpse of the perspective and lessons learned from recent years that were anything but normal. . . This book, of course, is even more valuable to those that aren't a believer in indexing. It may be a hard read if you're among those who still believe that 90 percent of investors can all be above average. Consider the effort well worth it because the common sense in this book may save your retirement. Reading this book might also help you realize, as I have, that common sense really is pretty uncommon."
--Allan Roth, CBS Moneywatch.com
"The definitive book on index fund investing. It explains why index fund investing is the best way -- no, the only way -- for people to invest their savings. . . [Bogle] does something few in the investing world would dare to do. He stands by what he said 10 years ago. The original text is presented unchanged. New data is added to reveal what happened over the past 10 years."
--Scott Burns, The Austin American Statesman
A worthwhile addition to one's library, particularly as a reference publication. . . This . . revision of a book written ten years ago . . . with the original text still present in the book, and an analysis of the predictions that were made ten years ago. . . makes fascinating reading. The analysis of the predictions on their own makes the book worth a read, even if all one does is look at the coloured sections which contain the updated material."
(Australian Investors Association)
"More Common Sense from Jack Bogle. Jack's back and he's unbowed. . . The tome holds up well after a decade. Bogle hasn't altered a word of the original text, just added color coded data and text boxes to show where he was on or off the mark. Guess what? Jack doesn't offer many mea culpas. . . The book is still essential reading for investors. Whether you think indexing is the best way to investor not, it's filled with simple, powerful advice that can help stack the odds of long-term financial success in your favor. Reading it then helped shape me as an investor and analyst. Here are the most important lessons (besides the obvious one: that indexing works) that I've drawn from the pages of both editions, as well as a couple of points where I, and many of my colleagues, dare to differ from St. Jack." (Morningstar)
From the Inside Flap
It has been over a decade since the original edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds was first published. While much has changed during this time, the importance of investing and the issues addressed in the original edition of this book have not. Now, in the Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds, Bogle returns to update his in-depth look at mutual funds and the business of investing--helping you navigate through the staggering array of investment options found in today's evolving investment landscape.
Timely and timeless, this important book examines the fundamentals of mutual fund investing in turbulent market environments and offers valuable guidance for building an investment portfolio. Along the way, Bogle shows you that simplicity and common sense still trump costly complexity, and that a low cost, broadly diversified portfolio continues to be the best way to build wealth at the lowest cost and risk--and will almost always outperform more expensive, actively managed mutual funds.
Throughout these pages, Bogle skillfully presents a platform for intelligent investing as he analyzes costs, exposes tax inefficiencies, and warns of the mutual fund industry's conflicting interests. Emphasizing long-term investing and asset allocation, Bogle offers sensible solutions to the fund selection process and reveals what it will take to make it in today's chaotic market. Updated charts, which also show original data, as well as new commentary and analysis provide timely guidance in light of recent changes in investment vehicles and market performance.
Securing your financial future has never seemed more difficult, but after reading this revised and updated edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds, you will become a better investor. From stock and bond funds to global investing and index funds, this book will help you regain your financial footing and make more informed investment decisions.
From the Back Cover
It has been over a decade since the original edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds was first published. While much has changed during this time, the importance of investing and the issues addressed in the original edition of this book have not. Now, in the Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds, Bogle returns to update his in-depth look at mutual funds and the business of investing—helping you navigate through the staggering array of investment options found in today's evolving investment landscape.
Timely and timeless, this important book examines the fundamentals of mutual fund investing in turbulent market environments and offers valuable guidance for building an investment portfolio. Along the way, Bogle shows you that simplicity and common sense still trump costly complexity, and that a low cost, broadly diversified portfolio continues to be the best way to build wealth at the lowest cost and risk—and will almost always outperform more expensive, actively managed mutual funds.
Throughout these pages, Bogle skillfully presents a platform for intelligent investing as he analyzes costs, exposes tax inefficiencies, and warns of the mutual fund industry's conflicting interests. Emphasizing long-term investing and asset allocation, Bogle offers sensible solutions to the fund selection process and reveals what it will take to make it in today's chaotic market. Updated charts, which also show original data, as well as new commentary and analysis provide timely guidance in light of recent changes in investment vehicles and market performance.
Securing your financial future has never seemed more difficult, but after reading this revised and updated edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds, you will become a better investor. From stock and bond funds to global investing and index funds, this book will help you regain your financial footing and make more informed investment decisions.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Common Sense on Mutual Funds
By John C. Bogle David F. SwensenJohn Wiley & Sons
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, LtdAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-13813-7
Chapter One
On Long-Term InvestingChance and the Garden
Investing is an act of faith. We entrust our capital to corporate stewards in the faith-at least with the hope-that their efforts will generate high rates of return on our investments. When we purchase corporate America's stocks and bonds, we are professing our faith that the long-term success of the U.S. economy and the nation's financial markets will continue in the future.
When we invest in a mutual fund, we are expressing our faith that the professional managers of the fund will be vigilant stewards of the assets we entrust to them. We are also recognizing the value of diversification by spreading our investments over a large number of stocks and bonds. A diversified portfolio minimizes the risk inherent in owning any individual security by shifting that risk to the level of the stock and bond markets.
Americans' faith in investing has waxed and waned, kindled by bull markets and chilled by bear markets, but it has remained intact. It has survived the Great Depression, two world wars, the rise and fall of communism, and a barrage of unnerving changes: booms and bankruptcies, inflation and deflation, shocks in commodity prices, the revolution in information technology, and the globalization of financial markets. In recent years, our faith has been enhanced-perhaps excessively so-by the bull market in stocks that began in 1982 and has accelerated, without significant interruption, toward the century's end. As we approach the millennium, confidence in equities is at an all-time high.
Chance, the Garden, and Long-Term Investing
Might some unforeseeable economic shock trigger another depression so severe that it would destroy our faith in the promise of investing? Perhaps. Excessive confidence in smooth seas can blind us to the risk of storms. History is replete with episodes in which the enthusiasm of investors has driven equity prices to-and even beyond-the point at which they are swept into a whirlwind of speculation, leading to unexpected losses. There is little certainty in investing. As long-term investors, however, we cannot afford to let the apocalyptic possibilities frighten us away from the markets. For without risk there is no return.
Another word for "risk" is "chance." And in today's high-f lying, fast-changing, complex world, the story of Chance the gardener contains an inspirational message for long-term investors. The seasons of his garden find a parallel in the cycles of the economy and the financial markets, and we can emulate his faith that their patterns of the past will define their course in the future.
Chance is a man who has grown to middle age living in a solitary room in a rich man's mansion, bereft of contact with other human beings. He has two all-consuming interests: watching television and tending the garden outside his room. When the mansion's owner dies, Chance wanders out on his first foray into the world. He is hit by the limousine of a powerful industrialist who is an adviser to the President. When he is rushed to the industrialist's estate for medical care, he identifies himself only as "Chance the gardener." In the confusion, his name quickly becomes "Chauncey Gardiner."
When the President visits the industrialist, the recuperating Chance sits in on the meeting. The economy is slumping; America's blue-chip corporations are under stress; the stock market is crashing. Unexpectedly, Chance is asked for his advice:
Chance shrank. He felt the roots of his thoughts had been suddenly yanked out of their wet earth and thrust, tangled, into the unfriendly air. He stared at the carpet. Finally, he spoke: "In a garden," he said, "growth has its season. There are spring and summer, but there are also fall and winter. And then spring and summer again. As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all will be well."
He slowly raises his eyes, and sees that the President seems quietly pleased-indeed, delighted-by his response.
"I must admit, Mr. Gardiner, that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I've heard in a very, very long time. Many of us forget that nature and society are one. Like nature, our economic system remains, in the long run, stable and rational, and that's why we must not fear to be at its mercy.... We welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, yet we are upset by the seasons of our economy! How foolish of us."
This story is not of my making. It is a brief summary of the early chapters of Jerzy Kosinski's novel Being There, which was made into a memorable film starring the late Peter Sellers. Like Chance, I am basically an optimist. I see our economy as healthy and stable. It is still marked by seasons of growth and seasons of decline, but its roots have remained strong. Despite the changing seasons, our economy has persisted in an upward course, rebounding from the blackest calamities.
Figure 1.1 chronicles our economy's growth in the twentieth century. Even in the darkest days of the Great Depression, faith in the future has been rewarded. From 1929 to 1933, the nation's economic output declined by a cumulative 27 percent. Recovery followed, however, and our economy expanded by a cumulative 50 percent through the rest of the 1930s. From 1944 to 1947, when the economic infrastructure designed for the Second World War had to be adapted to the peace-time production of goods and services, the U.S. economy tumbled into a short but sharp period of contraction, with output shrinking by 13 percent. But we then entered a season of growth, and within four years had recovered all of the lost output. In the next five decades, our economy evolved from a capital-intensive industrial economy, keenly sensitive to the rhythms of the business cycle, to an enormous service economy, less susceptible to extremes of boom and bust.
Long-term growth, at least in the United States, seems to have defined the course of economic events. Our real gross national product (GNP) has risen, on average, 3 percent annually during the twentieth century, and 2.9 percent annually in the half-century following the end of World War II-what might be called the modern economic era. We will inevitably continue to experience seasons of decline, but we can be confident that they will be succeeded by the reappearance of the long-term pattern of growth.
Within the repeated cycle of colorful autumns, barren winters, verdant springs, and warm summers, the stock market has also traced a rising secular trajectory. In this chapter, I review the long-term returns and risks of the most important investment assets: stocks and bonds. The historical record contains lessons that form the basis of successful investment strategy. I hope to show that the historical data support one conclusion with unusual force: To invest with success, you must be a long-term investor. The stock and bond markets are unpredictable on a short-term basis, but their long-term patterns of risk and return have proved durable enough to serve as the basis for a long-term strategy that leads to investment success. Although there is no guarantee that these patterns of the past, no matter how deeply ingrained in the historical record, will prevail in the future, a study of the past, accompanied by a self-administered dose of common sense, is the intelligent investor's best recourse.
The alternative to long-term investing is a short-term approach to the stock and bond markets. Countless examples from the financial media and the actual practices of professional and individual investors demonstrate that short-term investment strategies are inherently dangerous. In these current ebullient times, large numbers of investors are subordinating the principles of sound long-term investing to the frenetic short-term action that pervades our financial markets. Their counterproductive attempts to trade stocks and funds for short-term advantage, and to time the market (jumping aboard when the market is expected to rise, bailing out in anticipation of a decline), are resulting in the rapid turnover of investment portfolios that ought to be designed to seek long-term goals. We are not able to control our investment returns, but a long-term investment program, fortified by faith in the future, benefits from careful attention to those elements of investing that are within our power to control: risk, cost, and time.
How Has Our Garden Grown?
In reviewing the long-term history of stock and bond returns, I rely heavily on the work of Professor Jeremy J. Siegel, of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. This material is somewhat detailed, but it deserves careful study, for it provides a powerful case for long-term investing. As Chance might say, the garden represented by our financial markets offers many opportunities for investments to flower. Figure 1.2, based on a chart created by Professor Siegel for his fine book Stocks for the Long Run, demonstrates that stocks have provided the highest rate of return among the major categories of financial assets: stocks, bonds, U.S. Treasury bills, and gold. This graph covers the entire history of the American stock market, from 1802 to 2008. An initial investment of $10,000 in stocks, from 1802 on, with all dividends reinvested (and ignoring taxes) would have resulted in a terminal value of $5.6 billion in real dollars (after adjustment for inflation). The same initial investment in long-term U.S. government bonds, again reinvesting all interest income, would have yielded a little more than $8 million. Stocks grew at a real rate of 7 percent annually; bonds, at a rate of 3.5 percent. The significant advantage in annual return (compounded over the entire period) exhibited by stocks results in an extraordinary difference in terminal value, at least for an investor with a time horizon of 196 years-long-term investing approaching Methuselan proportions.
Since the early days of our securities markets, returns on stocks have proved to be consistent in each of three extended periods studied by Professor Siegel. The first period was from 1802 to 1870 when, Siegel notes, "the U.S. made a transition from an agrarian to an industrialized economy." In the second period, from 1871 to 1925, the United States became an important global economic and political power. And the third period, from 1926 to the present, is generally regarded as the history of the modern stock market.
These long-term data cover solely the financial markets of the United States. (Most studies show that stocks in other nations have provided lower returns and far higher risks.) In the early years, the data are based on fragmentary evidence of returns, subject to considerable bias through their focus on large corporations that survived, and derived from equity markets that were far different from today's in character and size (with, for example, no solid evidence of corporate earnings comparable to those reported under today's rigorous and transparent accounting standards). The returns reported for the early 1800s were based largely on bank stocks; for the post-Civil War era, on railroad stocks; and, as recently as the beginning of the twentieth century, on commodity stocks, including several major firms in the rope, twine, and leather businesses. Of the 12 stocks originally listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, General Electric alone has survived. But equity markets do have certain persistent characteristics. In each of the three periods examined by Professor Siegel, the U.S. stock market demonstrated a tendency to provide real (after-inflation) returns that surrounded a norm of about 7 percent, somewhat lower from 1871 to 1925, and somewhat higher in the modern era.
In the bond market, Professor Siegel examined the returns of long-term U.S. government bonds, which still serve as a benchmark for the performance of fixed-income investments. The long-term real return on bonds averaged 3.5 percent. But, in contrast with the remarkably stable long-term real returns provided by the stock market, bond market real returns were quite variable from period to period, averaging 4.8 percent during the first two periods, but falling to 2.0 percent during the third. Bond returns were especially volatile and unpredictable during the latter half of the twentieth century.
Stock Market Returns
Let's look first at the stock market. Table 1.1 contains two columns of stock market returns: nominal returns and real returns. The higher figures are nominal returns. Nominal returns are unadjusted for inflation. Real returns are corrected for inflation and are thus a more accurate reflection of the growth in an investor's purchasing power. Because the goal of investing is to accumulate real wealth-an enhanced ability to pay for goods and services-the ultimate focus of the long-term investor must be on real, not nominal, returns.
In the stock market's early years, there was little difference between nominal returns and real returns. In the first period (with its more dubious provenance), from 1802 to 1870, inflation appears to have been 0.1 percent annually, so the real return was only one-tenth of a percentage point lower than the nominal stock market return of 7.1 percent.
Inflation remained at an extremely low level through most of the nineteenth century. In the stock market's second major period, 1871 to 1925, returns were almost identical to those in the first period, although the rate of inflation accelerated sharply in the later years. Nominal stock market returns compounded at an annual rate of 7.2 percent, while the real rate of return was 6.6 percent. The difference was accounted for by annual inflation averaging 0.6 percent.
In the modern era, the rate of inflation has accelerated dramatically, averaging 3.1 percent annually, and the gap between real and nominal returns has widened accordingly. Since 1926, the stock market has provided a nominal annual return of 10.6 percent and an inflation-adjusted return of 7.2 percent. Since the Second World War, inflation has been especially high. From 1966 to 1981, for example, inflation surged to an annual rate of 7.0 percent. Nominal stock market returns of 6.6 percent annually were in fact negative real returns of -0.4 percent. More recently, inflation has subsided. From 1982 to 1997, during substantially all of the long-running bull market, real returns averaged 12.8 percent, approaching the highest return for any period of comparable length in U.S. history (14.2 percent in 1865-1880).
The high rate of inflation in our modern era is in large part the result of our nation's switch from a gold-based monetary system to a paper-based system. Under the gold standard, each dollar in circulation was convertible into a fixed amount of gold. Under our modern paper-based system, in which the dollar is backed by nothing more (or less) than the public's collective confidence in its value, there are far fewer constraints on the U.S. government's ability to create new dollars. On occasion, rapid growth in the money supply has unleashed bouts of rapid price inflation. The effect on real long-term stock returns has nonetheless proved neutral. Even as nominal returns have risen in line with inflation, the rate of real return has remained steady at about 7.0 percent, much as it did through the nineteenth century.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Common Sense on Mutual Fundsby John C. Bogle David F. Swensen Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : John Wiley & Sons Inc; Anniversary,Updated edition (December 1, 2009)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 622 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0470138130
- ISBN-13 : 978-0470138137
- Reading age : 1 year and up
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #140,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #23 in Bonds Investing (Books)
- #39 in Mutual Funds Investing (Books)
- #556 in Finance (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
John C. Bogle (Bryn Mawr, PA) is Founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. He created Vanguard in 1974 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 1996 and Senior Chairman until 2000. He had been associated with a predecessor company since 1951, immediately following his graduation from Princeton University, magna cum laude in Economics. The Vanguard Group is one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world. Headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Vanguard comprises more than 100 mutual funds with current assets totaling about $742 billion. Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the largest fund in the group, was founded by Mr. Bogle in 1975. In 2004, TIME magazine named Mr. Bogle as one of the world's 100 most powerful and influential people, and Institutional Investor presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1999, FORTUNE designated him as one of the investment industry's four "Giants of the 20th Century." In the same year, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for distinguished achievement in the nation's service."
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
bogle's main message is that costs do matter and simplicity is the best way to avoid costs. the recommendation is to buy low cost broad-based index funds that will outperform the vast majority of actively managed mutual funds in the long run. notice by the definition of "average" that the average investor will get average market returns minus fees and taxes. notice the low cost broad-based index fund gets average market returns minus *minimized* fees and taxes. the index investor will thus outperform the average investor in actively managed mutual funds given all the extra costs associated with active management. also notice that the margin of victory from indexing will compound over the years and will lead to an even greater index fund performance in the long run. that's the gist of why indexing works. if you're not convinced, read bogle's book!
even if you've already read some of the other great passive investing books espousing the virtues of indexing, you still owe it to yourself to read at least one of bogle's books. "common sense on mutual funds" is both readable as well as comprehensive, and would be a good addition to your library. burton malkiel, rick ferri, william bernstein, larry swedroe and others have all written excellent books on the subject as well, but they also hold differing opinions on the specifics, so read all of these authors! i was already convinced on indexing after first reading malkiel's book, but continued reading more on passive investing to work out all the details. these books as a whole help reinforce the main ideas while also exposing the reader to the authors' differences in perspectives, thus building confidence in the reader to think and succeed as an independent d.i.y. investor.
of particular interest to me was the issue of small-cap value tilting. i was ambivalent on this practice, but bogle's book convinced me to *not* small-cap value tilt. readers who already know what small-cap value tilting is should feel free to skip to the next paragraph. now, for those unfamiliar with the terminology, stocks are divided according to size (small-cap, mid-cap, large-cap) as well as style (value, blend, growth). the size refers to the company's size as measured by its market capitalization, i.e. the number of shares multiplied by the price per share. the style is another way to partition stocks according to certain numbers such as price/book ratios and dividend yields; there's no agreed upon standard that's universally accepted for what constitutes a value/blend/growth stock. informally, you could think of value stocks as those that are not currently favored by the market for whatever reason. at the opposite extreme, growth stocks are "hot" stocks that scream potential. blend stocks are in between value and growth. given 3 sizes and 3 styles, there are thus 9 size-style combinations. according to research done by professors fama and french, small-cap value stocks significantly outperform the other 8 size-style combinations in the long run. the problem is, small-cap value stocks make up about 3% of the total stock market. small-cap value tilting means overloading on small-cap value stocks to try to capture the bonus identified in the fama/french research, but that also means underweighting 97% of the total market and potentially missing out if the other 8 size-style combinations outperform small-cap value. you see the dilemma.
bogle's repeated message of simplicity, as well as his emphasis on reversion to the mean, ultimately convinced me to resist the temptation of small-cap value tilting. bogle's unwavering conviction in the simple serves as a necessary component in the chorus of voices, helping to guide your investment decisions, even on the more esoteric matters. and although the message of simplicity is easily stated, i am glad bogle wrote a comprehensive text because the details illustrating the majesty of simplicity is what finally settled the small-cap value tilting question for me.
this book's huge size and scope definitely has its drawbacks, not the least of which is the sheer intimidation factor. nevertheless, i believe this book does serve a useful role in the catalog of passive investing, and bogle was the only one who could've written it.
I like to share something simple that has worked for me all these years. I want my financial strategy to provide me four things. 1. Set it and forget it 2. tax advantage 3. hedge against inflation 4. cashflow.
Here is what I suggest if you want to accomplish all of these four things.
Establish a Roth IRA from Vanguard Group and buy the ETF VOO. Fund it monthly automatically or manually. Fund it to the maximum allowed each year for every year you are working. This can also be where you put your 12 months emergency fund if you need to withdraw for emergencies, because there is no penalty when you withdraw up to your contributions.
Next, establish a brokerage account, and fund it monthly, yearly, as long as you are working. You can set it up where each month the brokerage account pulls some funding amount from your checking/savings account to buy ETF from your brokerage. This account is taxable. You can simple buy VOO, and do a buy and hold strategy and reinvest the dividends.
Next, buy single family rental property or multi-family apartments. This type of investment allows you to take advantage of the tax laws in real estate investments and is also a hedge against inflation. The depreciation that you take on hides the amount of income that you generate from such properties, thereby, you not having to pay any taxes on the profits.
To free yourself from any work in real estate, hire a property manager for the single family rental. To free yourself from any work in multi-family apartments, invest as a passive investor where you only provide the funding for the investment and don't have to do all the work in operations and management of the asset.
You get monthly financial reports and each quarter period you get a dividend sent to your bank account.
Next thing is optional or you do it because you love it. Have some other source of income if you want to work or earn from wages. Whether it be from a regular W2 job, or from other types of employment: entrepreneur, independent contractor, YouTuber, or the gig economy.
By having a strategy that provides all four legs of a table, you have set up an excellent foundation that frees you up to pursue your life's fulfilling activities, you don't have to work for your money if you don't want to. Let your investments grow it for you.
People say that investing is complex and confusing and that you need to hire a financial advisor to help you on investing your money for a comfortable retirement. After reading this book, I found that much of what you hear from the financial industry is wrong and is designed to confuse the retail investor.
The truth of the matter is that investing your money is not complex and that you do not need a financial advisor. If you listen and follow the advice from much of the professional investor class about where you should put your money, you would be making them rich at your expense.
John Bogle exposes the smokescreen behind the financial industry's practices claiming to manage your money all the while they make big bucks from skimming from your assets that you hand over to them to collect.
Bogle provides his investment theories and the evidence to back them up. It is what most others in the industry has long kept silent and a secret. The truth to investing is that it is not a secret anymore. The shell game has been exposed. With the secret out in the sunshine, it is no better time to do it yourself, it is not complex, and don't listen to the advise of professional portfolio managers who are out to take your money while pretending to have your back. The professionals make money off your back, and you can do better without them.
Go with Bogle's folly, read the book, and follow the wisdom in it, and you will do better than 96% of all funds managed by the portfolio managers.
It is like the reference Encyclopedia of Mutual Funds. The 600+ pages cover everything from basic definitions to strategies for investment to include several levels of the economics and math that go with it.
On of my favorite things about this booko is that Bogle does not pull any punches. This is not a get rich quick view of funds. It is a treatise and a lifetime of experience condensed down into a readable book.
While you can read the book cover to cover, I recommend using it as a reference where you read the book in the sections as you need them.
Matthew A. Jackson
Top reviews from other countries
Way too long for what the author is advocating which I am going to give you a breakdown:
1) In the short term, stocks are more volatile than bonds but produce a greater return in the long term
2) A younger investor with a longer investing outlook should allocate more of their capital in common stocks and less in bonds but the reverse for an older investor with shorter time outlook.
3) The likelihood of active investing in producing consistent returns is poor for the long-term as few managers have consistently outperformed the market.
4) An index fund is the surest way to capture returns from the whole market
5) Go for an index fund that has the lowest cost and lowest turnover to maximise returns for the investor
6) Make sure the index represents the whole market and has a cap on how much funding it is open too.
7) Use these principles to invest in both bonds and index funds
8) Take home message the lowest cost fund with the lowest turnover produces the best result in the long term.
For the message, I give the book 5 Stars!