Finance
Founded Vanguard and invented the index fund
John Bogle democratized investing, building Vanguard into a trillion-dollar empire on principles of low cost and long-term index funds.
“Don't just do something, stand there.”
8 Courses · 40 Lessons · 5 Hours
Biography
Born in 1929, the year of the crash, into a family ruined by the Depression. He studied at Princeton thanks to scholarships and part-time jobs, and wrote his thesis on mutual funds: even then, he argued that funds “cannot claim superiority over market indexes.”
He joined Wellington Management, became its president, and was fired in 1974 after a failed merger. At 45, instead of retiring, he founded Vanguard with a unique structure: the company is owned by its funds, and therefore by the investors themselves.
In 1976, he launched the first index fund for retail investors: it raised 11 million against the hoped-for 150 million and was ridiculed as “Bogle's Folly.” Fifty years later, Vanguard manages over 9 trillion dollars, and indexing is the global standard.
“Don't look for the needle in the haystack; buy the haystack.” Minimal costs, no market timing, total diversification, a decades-long horizon. His math is brutal: every percentage point of fees is a point forever taken from compound returns.
He passed away in 2019. Buffett said that if there were a statue for the person who has done the most for American investors, it would be Jack Bogle's: he moved trillions from the pockets of Wall Street to those of savers.
His library
8 Courses · 40 Lessons · 5 Hours. Select a course to see every lesson inside it.
New to John? Start here
Grasp why minimal fees and broad diversification are your greatest allies.
Beginner
5 lessons
The High Cost of Active Management
8 min readBogle's Revelation: The First Index Fund
8 min readUnderstanding the Compounding of Costs
8 min readThe Power of Market Returns (and nothing more)
8 min readBuilding Your First Low-Cost Portfolio
8 min readTiptico courses are independent educational analyses based on publicly available information, writings, interviews, speeches and documented decisions. The individuals featured are not instructors, employees, partners, sponsors or endorsers of Tiptico unless explicitly stated.
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