Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor - Hardcover

Bogle, John C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471295434 ISBN 13: 9780471295433

Publisher: John C. Wiley & Sons, 1999

Synopsis

The founder of The Vanguard Group offers an incisive analysis of mutual fund investment, discussing the significance of asset allocation, the benefits of simplicity, index funds, tax costs, information technologies, and other investment principles. 75,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo.

About this title

About the Author

John C. Bogle (Philadelphia, PA) is the founder and Senior Chairman of The Vanguard Group, Inc., the largest no-load mutual fund group with over $200 billion in assets and five million shareholders.

From the Back Cover

Common Sense on Mutual Funds. New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor Forward by Peter L.Bernstein.

"Other investment executives used to roll their eyes about Vanguard's Bogle, but his rules work."-Newsweek

When Jack Bogle speaks, people listen-whether they are fans or not. As the senior chairman and founder of the Vanguard Group, one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world, he has single-handedly transformed the industry by championing better funds at lower costs to the investor. A leading thinker and visionary whose ideas and principles have been adopted by countless investors, his name is as synonymous with excellence in mutual fund investing as Warren Buffett's is with excellence in stock investing. Now, in Common Sense on Mutual Funds, Bogle takes a critical look at the mutual fund industry and how we invest, and charts a compelling course for change.

Written in Bogle's inimitable style, this eye-opening book examines the fundamentals of mutual fund investing alongside industry practices that are often in conflict with a sound long-term investment program. Common Sense on Mutual Funds shows investors how to revolutionize their portfolios by embracing simplicity and then avoiding industry pitfalls. Just as Thomas Paine argued for a new way of thinking about independence in "Common Sense," so Bogle sets forth a new way of looking at mutual funds. He presents a platform for intelligent investing and then uncovers the ills that beset the mutual fund industry, serious ills that thwart our efforts to accumulate adequate financial resources. He analyzes costs, scrutinizes asset size, exposes tax inefficiencies, warns of "empty suit" directors, and reveals the severe conflict between fund principles and fund pro-motion. Emphasizing long-term investing and asset allocation, Bogle finds in simplicity the solution to the riddle of fund selection by investors. From stock and bond funds to global investing and index funds, Common Sense on Mutual Funds provides insight, illumination, and enlightenment.

For more than 30 years, Bogle has championed the rights of the fund shareholder, for he believes that investing is first and last about people's hopes and fears and individual goals. In Common Sense on Mutual Funds, he speaks eloquently about individual investors and how their interests are not being well-served: "The ills and injustices suffered by mutual fund investors are not so dissimilar to those our forebears suffered under English tyranny. . . . I have no quarrel with management companies focusing on profits. But the trade-off between the profits that accrue to fund shareholders and the profits that accrue to the fund management companies seems subject to no independent watchdog, despite the fact that it is the shareholders who actually own the mutual funds."

Organized as a series of essays on the investment issues of the day, this insider's view of the industry makes vital information on mutual funds accessible to experienced investors as well as those just beginning. A veritable treasure chest filled with insight and guidance from a true leader, Common Sense on Mutual Funds is an invaluable addition to every investor's library. Bogle's message, amid the cacophony of investment advice, is clear and simple: common sense will rule the day.

Reviews

Not that many years ago, an average bookstore might have had two or three books on mutual funds filed away in the business section. Today, as the number of Americans who invest in mutual funds continues to grow, such books take up several aisles in a section of their own. There are guides for data junkies and mathphobes, books that tell how to make a killing and books that tell how to avoid the coming disaster. A few classics stand above the clutter. Bogle on Mutual Funds is one of them. Now the same author has added another. While the first book aimed at educating beginners, the new one seeks to persuade experienced investors to discard received wisdom that isn't so wise after all. While no 450-page work on mutual funds with lots of charts can be considered fun summer reading, the book is always informative and the writing never worse than painless and sometimes quite lively. Bogle speaks with a rare authority. On one hand, he is the founder of Vanguard mutual funds, the second-largest mutual fund company in the world. So he knows the business from the ground up. On the other hand, Vanguard has always been famous for running the lowest-cost mutual funds, funds that eschew loads, engage in sensible strategies and return all profit to the investors. So Bogle is also a leading consumer advocate. That rare combination, mixed with years of serious research and a dash of style, makes Bogle an unparalleled guide to the world of mutual funds. Money Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: John C. Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471295434
• ISBN 13: 9780471295433
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496