John C. Bogle is the inventor of index funds and founder of Vanguard, one of the largest asset managers in the world.
In this classic book, he explains what he believes is the easiest and most efficient investment strategy: index funds that track a broad stock market index, such as the S&P 500, and reinvest the dividends.
He uses extensive data to explain why, for private investors, index funds are always the better long-term investment option than individually picked stocks or managed mutual funds.
While index funds have almost no costs, you pay about 2% in annual fees for managed funds. However, almost no mutual fund manages to beat the market by more than 2% over the long term, so the net return is ultimately lower than that of index funds.
When trading individual stocks, few private investors outperform the market over the long term, as many become frantic during setbacks and tend to panic sell.
Therefore, if you prefer to sit back and relax rather than delve deeply into the subject matter, index funds are the best choice for you.
This book teaches you everything there is to know about index funds. The explanations are based on facts and data, are well-structured, and written understandably.
My only criticism: the book could have been a bit more compact. Many topics are unnecessarily stretched out and repeated several times.
Nevertheless, it's a recommendation for anyone who wants to invest their money with little effort and an attractive return.
🎧 Suitable as an audiobook? Due to the many numbers and statistics, I would recommend it more companionly to the printed book.
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