With The Little Book of Common Sense Investing as your guide, you’ll discover how to make investing a winner’s game: You’ll also find warnings about investment fads and fashions, including the recent stampede into exchange traded funds and the rise of indexing gimmickry. I selected this book because it is the Anniversary edition and figured it had the most info as it pertains to updated examples-2017economics-recent political climate. Clearly, there are some ways to invest that do beat the market - I just wish that Bogle had spent a little time getting into what it takes to be successful in those other areas. Starting early, and mimicking the market by investing in Index Funds is the best way to ensure that we live a comfortable post-retirement life. One perplexing part that I'm still yet to understand is the fact that Bogle considers ETFs an abomination.

This would be a great book to start since this book was written for normal people, not financial specialists. The sole minus point is that it is very repetitive, reiterating on the same point from different angles. However I would suggest to read the richest man in Babylon followed by the intelligent investor before reading this book. It starts out very fun, making a strong case to attach itself to Thomas Paine's Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings, the book that led to the American Revolution.

In case you find yourself questioning Bogle, the end of each chapter contains a "Don't Take My Word For It" where well-known investors agree with Bogle on the chapter's topic. Over the course of his long career, Bogle―founder of the Vanguard Group and creator of the world’s first index mutual fund―has relied primarily on index investing to help Vanguard’s clients build substantial wealth. For someone who has significant experience in the financial markets, this book offers no new insights.

D. in Mutual Funds from Princeton University and founded the first-ever Index Fund Vanguard 500 in 1976. Plus, you’d have to wait about 25 years to know who that is, by which time you’ve already missed out! Unfortunately, the rest of the book is just a lot of repeating the same good idea, always pushing for the value of ETFs, and it highlights how the system OUGHT to work, without interference or bad actors. 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.Really it just seems to refer to rich and upper middle class white people who can afford to invest money in the first place. Simple analysis showing why investing in low-cost index funds should be the main approach to follow as an investor. To support his statement (while claiming that he invented the index funds) he uses arguments such as tax, agent fees, half quotes from famous people, stupid examples on why this worked (you may be able to find many more on why this did not work!