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Summary: The Human Approach
Review: I especially loved the chapter "On Human Beings." It shows that in a world where you always feel like a number John Bogle has instilled in Vanguard the human being approach. Not only is he knowledgeable about mutal funds he knows what is needed behind the scenes to keep them successful. Great job Mr. Bogle
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Summary: An Eye Opener
Review: I have read of Vangard's low cost mutual funds in many financial books. Now I know why their costs are so low. Mr. Bogle presents his case for how the mutual fund industry should operate and where it fails the shareholder in too many areas. This book may be too technical for some readers, but I would highly recommend it to anyone with a financial background. This is not "The Courage to Be Rich" or one of the other feel good financial books. But if you really want to understand how the mutual fund system works and get the most for your investment dollar, the answers are in here.
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Summary: god wrote it
Review: i know the book inside out the author knows me and will leave the information that i will need on the voice mail. you already know the number may god bless u
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent But Boring
Review: I think it is too technical for me. The message of cost and index keeps popping up after numerous lengthy and boring technical discussions. I wish the author spent more time on exact and practical strategies instead of repeating his thesis of cost/index funds over and over again. It deserves a four star even though I do not have the patience to follow the details
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Summary: Bogel is half right and half misleading
Review: I was disappointed that John Bogel having connected historical earnings to market performance over the long term missed the historical relationship of P/E to inflation. He called P/E expansion "speculation" and P/E contraction the reversal of the same. Not true.
Market P/E's are connected directly by market forces to real returns in investment alternatives. Equities have averaged earnings growth close to 6.2%. (This is another miscalculation-better to look at the earnings channel and calculate the slope of this channel because earnings do have a wobble year-to-year. This is in contrast to Bogel's surprisingly simplistic approach of selecting a simple beginning point to end point analysis.) The P/E's of the 1955-1965 period were very close to 20 because rates were low and inflation was near 1-2% range. This changed as inflation began to creep into the market in 1965, read this as excessive government spending w/Great Society and Vietnam, and was sustained thru 1982 when Volcker took the steps to reverse it. The IBES Model that maps the 10yr Treasury yield vs the SP500 earnings yield explains the last 25yrs quite well. The SP500's P/E of less than 7 in 1982 is related to a market earnings yield of 15%-16% while the 10Yr Treas was at 15%. These yields fell closely together for the next 20yrs thus showing that the market P/E adjusted to a competitive environment. Only from 1995-2000 did the speculative excess eventually have the market 60% OVERVALUED.
Bogel is biased to selling his Vanguard Funds and his analysis stops well short of acceptable analysis.
Further, although the average manager does not do much for investors, there certainly are superior managers whose records are sustained over time. These managers represent the top 10% and they are not that hard to find once you start to look. Just recognize that markets have cycles that factor into near term manager investment returns. Don't buy at the top! Even the best manager will give you short-term disappointment if you buy at the top.
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Summary: Brokers Hate This Guy - He Deserves 6 Stars
Review: If we were not a democracy someone would lock this guy up. He has spilled all the beans on the fake financial advisors and financial and insurance sales people that want to sell you the grotesque front end loaded mutual funds and those annuities that make piles of money for everyone except for the investor. Bogle founded one of the biggest mutual fund groups in America - the Vanguard Group - and he is a burr under the saddle of many financial people. His advice saves you money at the expense of the broker.The bitter truth is that over the long haul only 10% of mutual funds outperform the conservative S&P 500 index. So why pay some company a front end load fund of 5-7% to under-perform the S&P 500 plus an annual fee of 1.5% when you can buy S&P index shares or Vanguard mutual funds that have no load fees, and have very low annual expenses - often less than 0.5% per annum. You end up giving away a chuck of your money if you do not follow his sound advice. Bogle of course does not want to stop there. He wants to reign in all those CEO perks and huge bonuses and use the leverage of the mutual fund shareholders. All great stuff, This is a case where Amazon.com should have a special 6 star category. Jack in Toronto
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Summary: Index funds are still managed! C'mon Bogle.
Review: In waging his crusade against actively managed funds, Bogle loses sight of the fact that even index funds are managed nonetheless. Take the popular Vanguard 500 Index Fund, which is indexed to S&P 500. He still cannot dodge the question: Who decides which stock gets listed or delisted? It's S&P itself, which manages the index. But why does he suppose that S&P is always a better managing institution than the best mutual fund companies that actively manage their funds?
Arguably, most fund managers can't outperform the indexes, but that does NOT mean that no managers actively managing their funds ever outperform the indexes. If you have to put money in the market, why not go for the best? And sure, managers can blow up too, but you can still diversify amongst the best managed funds. As to costs, sure, index funds have small expenses compared to actively managed funds, but index funds have a serious drawback--usually a lot more volatility that makes owning them riskier. Investing is not just about keeping expenses to a minimum--important as it is. Neither is it merely about performance. It's also about controlling risks and preserving capital. I for one wouldn't want to own a fund--even for the long term and however cheap--if it's up 40% one year, down 30% the next, and then up %25% still the next and so on. I'm willing to pay more knowing that my capital would be preserved even in a down market. No index funds can be compared to the safety and nonvolatile nature of such funds as SGENX, OAKBX, MERFX and MVALX, which have very low betas. Bogle's indexing approach is for me a sure path to mediocrity. If you have to put money in the market, why not go for the best funds with a long-term market-beating track record and consistent returns? To reduce management-related risks, why not also diversify amongst the best managed funds? That said, I don't mean to say that you should not own index funds at all.
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Summary: One of the best on mutual funds
Review: It took me years to finally figure out that "passive" investing in mutual funds is the absolute best way to build a retirement fund. Mr. Bogle has an intimate relationship with index funds because he, via Vanguard, blazed the path when all others doubted indexing. As a CPA and MBA and CFP to boot I have spent a fair amount of time and effort trying to "beat the market" only to learn that matching the market is the best strategy for the long haul. Had I simply invested according to his precepts I would have parlayed a lot more money with a lot less effort. It IS a hard book to read for those not used to technical terms. But "stay the course" as John would say, and you (and your money) will be amply rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best on mutual funds
Review: It took me years to finally figure out that "passive" investing in mutual funds is the absolute best way to build a retirement fund. Mr. Bogle has an intimate relationship with index funds because he, via Vanguard, blazed the path when all others doubted indexing. As a CPA and MBA and CFP to boot I have spent a fair amount of time and effort trying to "beat the market" only to learn that matching the market is the best strategy for the long haul. Had I simply invested according to his precepts I would have parlayed a lot more money with a lot less effort. It IS a hard book to read for those not used to technical terms. But "stay the course" as John would say, and you (and your money) will be amply rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: another seminal work by Bogle
Review: John Bogle has done more to benefit investors than any 10,000 brokers, business talking heads, high-priced fund managers, or how-to investment books.
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