The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns »

John C. Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group and President of its 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. In 1999, Fortune magazine named Mr. Bogle as one of the four "Investment Giants" of the twentieth century; in 2004, Time named him one of the world's 100 most powerful and influential people; and Institutional Investor presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Investing is all about common sense. Owning a diversified portfolio of stocks and holding it for the long term is a winner's game. Trying to beat the stock market is theoretically a zero-sum game (for every winner, there must be a loser), and after the substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser's game. Common sense tells us—and history confirms—that the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy and hold all of the nation's publicly held businesses at very low cost. The classic index fund that owns this market portfolio is the only investment that guarantees you with your fair share of stock market returns.

To learn how to make index investing work for you, there's no better mentor than legendary mutual fund industry veteran John C. Bogle. Over the course of his long career, Bogle—founder of the Vanguard Group and creator of the world's first index mutual fund—has relied primarily on index investing to help Vanguard's clients build substantial wealth. Now, with The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, he wants to help you do the same.

Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing will show you how to incorporate this proven investment strategy into your portfolio. It will also change the very way you think about investing. Successful investing is not easy—it requires discipline and patience. But it is simple, for it's all about common sense.

With The Little Book of Common Sense Investing as your guide, you'll discover how to make investing a winner's game:

• Why business reality—dividend yields and earnings growth—is more important than market expectations
• How to overcome the powerful impact of investment costs, taxes, and inflation
• How the magic of compounding returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs
• What expert investors and brilliant academics—from Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham to Paul Samuelson and Burton Malkiel—have to say about index investing
• And much more

You'll also find warnings about investment fads and fashions, including the recent stampede into exchange traded funds and the rise of indexing gimmickry. The real formula for investment success is to own the entire market, while significantly minimizing the costs of financial intermediation. That's what index investing is all about. And that's what this book is all about.

Dale Farris - Library Journal

Bogle (The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism) provides exemplary advice for investors interested in index funds. His solid, logical information is targeted at investors at all levels, and he deflates the myth of the superiority of mutual funds by explaining how common sense can help the average investor successfully manage low-cost index funds. As Bogle explains, owning a diversified portfolio of stocks for the long term is a winner's game, while trying to beat the stock market is a zero-sum game; after the substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser's game. The material explains why dividend yields and earnings growth are more important than market expectations, how to overcome the powerful impact of investment costs, taxes, and inflation, and what expert investors like Warren Buffett say about index investing. The solid narration by Thom Pinto keeps listener interest on Bogle's latest approach to long-term investing, which, while offering nothing extraordinarily new in the overly saturated financial advice genre, nicely represents more than 20 years of successful investment advice from a leader in this field. Highly recommended for university libraries supporting a business curriculum and larger public libraries.

Introduction     xi
A Parable     1
Rational Exuberance     9
Cast Your Lot with Business     23
How Most Investors Turn a Winner's Game into a Loser's Game     35
The Grand Illusion     49
Taxes Are Costs, Too     60
When the Good Times No Longer Roll     68
Selecting Long-Term Winners     78
Yesterday's Winners, Tomorrow's Losers     89
Seeking Advice to Select Funds?     100
Focus on the Lowest-Cost Funds     113
Profit from the Majesty of Simplicity     122
Bond Funds and Money Market Funds     138
Index Funds That Promise to Beat the Market     152
The Exchange Traded Fund     164
What Would Benjamin Graham Have Thought about Indexing?     176
"The Relentless Rules of Humble Arithmetic"     187
What Should I Do Now?     200
Acknowledgments     215