John C. Bogle is the investment visionary who founded the Vanguard Group. In this candid book, he reveals his insights on finance, economics, mutual funds, stewardship, and idealism. John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years includes his essays spanning the first 50 years of his legendary career, beginning with his landmark Princeton University senior thesis, “The Economic Role of the Investment Company.” This thesis ultimately established Bogle’s guiding principles for successful investing.
Bogle founded Vanguard to minimize the profound conflicts of interest in the traditional structure of the mutual fund industry, the resulting high costs, and the devastating effects the costs have—eroding the long-term returns earned by investors. Under Bogle’s leadership, Vanguard developed a unique ownership structure that minimized conflicts of interest, a singular investment philosophy, and an enlightened approach to human values. Bogle, a maverick who is frequently regarded as a heretic in the mutual fund world, became a trusted leader known as “St. Jack” to millions of investors.
In his own words, Bogle explores past trends and future developments driving the fund industry and reveals the most effective means of building wealth over the long term. He outlines the four elements for developing an ideal investment program and explains how to reap the benefits of the powerful magic of long-term compounding of investment returns, all the while minimizing the devastating tyranny of compounding costs. He explains how the unique corporate structure he designed for Vanguard in 1974 put the focus on low costs and service to clients. His creation of the world’s first index mutual fund in 1975 was critical to that story; and in 1977, he revolutionized the use of “no-load” mutual funds and redefined the structure of bond funds.
John Bogle on Investing represents the highest manifestation of Bogle’s idealism—his long-standing view that the central principle of the mutual fund business should be not the marketing of financial products to customers, but the stewardship of investment services for clients. First published in 2001, in 2015 it is well on its way to becoming a classic.
