The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits)

Bogle is the inventor of the index-tracking fund, so it's no surprise that this is all about index investing. He gives all of the arguments for it, and supports it with many quotes from the big names. Here's Warren Buffett: "By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investor can actually out-perform most investment professionals. Paradoxically, when 'dumb' money acknowledges its limitations, it ceases to be dumb .... Those index funds that are very low cost .... are investor-friendly by definition and are the best selection for most of those who wish to own equities" So, read this book to get a solid understanding of index trackers. I'd couple it with my favourite book on investing: Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School , where amongst other things you'll learn how to hold a portfolio of equities and bonds, rebalancing every year or so, which forces you to buy low and sell high. Be careful which index you choose to track though. I'm not convinced about the FTSE , as it has plenty of miners and stodgy companies. The S&P 500 has more of a tech bias, and is perhaps a better cross section of US industry than the FTSE is of UK industry. And it's not good to track an index that mostly goes nowhere. On the other hand, if you track the S&P or Nasdaq you'll have exposure to USD/GBP FX, which you probably don't want. You may not agree with me, and that's fine; I just believe that you should think very carefully about which equity index to track. Unlike US investors, this isn't such an easy question to answer.

Good, book for those new to the stock market, it is a must read before diving into the world of funds, John bogle applies real facts that can't be ignored before investing in mutual funds, after all even warren buffet recommends the index fund strategy.

On one level, I would concur with other reviewers of this book. It is just a tad repetitive - Bogle makes his key points fairly early on (minimise costs, don't try to second-guess the markets, avoid the poisoned-chalice of 'timing', buy the appropriate risk-graded market exposure using passives etc) and then keeps coming back to them later on. However...and it's a big however. In practice, I think the repetition is important. It is only superfluous for those who may have already learned the lessons, bought into the underlying logic. The fact is that the preponderance of investors (and, apparently, fund managers) still believe in an Alice-in-Wonderland world of investment which is all about special insights, market timing, leveraging and unfeasibly complex investment products or strategies. In the UK, many IFAs still attempt to 'pick the winners', akin to having a day at the races, except one's entire future wealth prospects depends upon the outcome. Bogle circles around, and comes back to his themes, but exploring them in different contexts, and with different examples. The author deals with all of this. He writes beautifully, and clearly. He is always forthright, and the text breathes commonsense and belief in every sentence. He also very usefully handles the issue of fads - for instance, chapter 15 supplies some much needed clarity on the pitfalls of ETFs, which often appear to be embraced somewhat indiscriminately by investors and advisers alike. There are eighteen chapters, which may seem a lot for "The Little Book of...", but they are short chapters, and they provide access to the subject-matter in bite-size chunks. This is eminently readable, even for busy people with little time for reading. Overall, this is a very useful book of practical guidance on the subject of investing. I would also recommend very strongly Jack's other seminal book, 'Enough': Enough True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by Bogle, John C. ( Author ) ON Jun-25-2010, Paperback

This book Completely changed my investing strategy and saved me a small fortune. Essential reading for anyone saving for the future.

I never write reviews, had to for this one, very easy to understand, honest, must buy

It's a very smart book from a very smart man. Very clear concepts and examples. Oozes from brilliance.

I've been trying to learn more about investing for quite a while, but this is the first book I've bought on the topic. "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" is focused on the use of index-linked funds, which are described as the ideal investment tool for people who don't want to get too involved in stock-watching, but want an investment which has a good chance of soundly beating the returns offered by cash savings accounts over the long term. With the author John Bogle being one of the key players in the field of index funds (albeit now retired), one could easily anticipate a certain unfair bias in favour of these products. There does appear to be a certain element of this, as no mention is given of any potential disadvantages to index funds (other sources confirm that they do exist to some degree). That said, the book gives very clear examples of why an index fund can be generally expected to beat the alternatives, and provides an excellent argument for why this should be one of the main investment tools for everyone except die-hard gamblers. I wish the book was a little longer, with some discussion of the disadvantages of these index funds and a clearer display of how level-headedness and the Dunning–Kruger effect contribute to people being so determined that they can beat the market.

Avoids the hype, the jargon, the wild promises of super wealth, just tells you how to make some decent money,

Te explica los conceptos básicos del value investing. Quizás algo denso para quien sea todavía iniciado en el mundo de la inversión.

Escrito em linguagem de fácil entendimento, apesar da complexidade do tema, é leitura essencial para os interessados em investimentos em geral.

ANYONE who invests really NEEDS to read this book! I lost a BUNDLE in the past year in the market. I began to think my investment advisory firm was NOT taking the best care of me, but the WERE GETTING PAID IN FULL while losing me a quarter million bucks! And I started researching, looking for "A Better Way." I worked hard, put in many long hours, went through every resource available to me... And then I found... This little book. From it I've learned my advisors could never do as good a job for me as I CAN do for myself! This little book has led me to start moving my assets out of "helpers" hands, and finally reap the FULL rewards my invested money generates instead of letting my "helpers" continue helping themselves to MY MONEY!!! The book is written by someone who is more verbose than I, but the book is well written, informative, and builds the author's case in a logical, stepwise manner. It shows you how you've been wrong, paying high fees unnecessarily. More, it shows you the tool available to everyone that allows much faster wealth building with passive investing than is possible with any active investing. Yep, if you've got money TO invest (old farts like me do) you really need to read this book. I guarantee you will be helped by it. Especially considering we really can't count on Social Security for our old age. Social Security was never meant to be more than a source of PARTIAL suport! You'd jolly well better have your own money invested and generating enough additional cash to make your life comfortable in your old age, because nobody is going to do it for you! If you think Uncle Sugar is going to keep your comfortable in your older years, BOY are you in for a shock! Buy the book. Read it. Learn how to be more financially secure, sooner. It's in the book!

Book-level: Advanced Sir John Bogle has really written a masterpiece, and rightly qualifies to be marked as a "Bible" for Investment Philosophy. Considering author was a founder of the Vanguard empire, and a pioneer of the Index Mutual Fund, most of the book is presenting supporting ideas for the same. The Stock Market is a price discovery place and if all people invest in Index Fund, then price discovery of companies out of the index will be a tough task, hence most should but not everyone should follow him. :) If you are willing to ignore the Vanguard Index Mutual Fund push, as not all readers are from the USA, and learn how to choose investment vehicle then this book provides a great deal of details and guiding principles. Book answers below questions well. - Active vs Passive Investment - Why cost matters? - Why future numbers will not be as good as past? - Why choosing a recent table topper is a bad idea? - When to choose advisor? and, what to expect from one? - ETF vs Index Fund - Why Sector or Theme based Index Funds are an illusion? - What Asset Allocation should one choose? and, the magic of cost along with it. With lots of courage, and though author gave evidence to support his argument, I would like to counter the argument of Indexing is better choice in developed and emerging market. Considering I am from India, this country does have pockets of companies which are out of the index and hence Active Fund Managers are still able to deliver out performance to justify their cost. Situation is tilting towards author's argument but there is still scope for few years, if not many, for Active Managers to deliver out performance. And I am neither a Fund Manager myself nor associated with any nor paid to write this.

If you have no investment knowledge, this book will guide you in making safe, long term strategies that will match the average returns on the stock market, without needing to even look at your investments more than every few months. I like it that he "tells it as it is", and does not recommend the excessive ratio of bonds to stocks recommended elsewhere. Bonds do well as interest rates fall. After 30 years of interest rates going lower and bonds acting favorably, interest rates can only go up and bonds will be a guaranteed way to lose money, although perhaps at a rate low enough that the investor will not notice until he or she can no longer afford the things that they were used to. He points out that Mutual Funds cannot improve on the stock market movements enough that they can earn their pay and still beat couch potato investing.