John Bogle

John Clifton "Jack" Bogle (born May 8, 1929 in Verona, New Jersey) is the founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group. His family was affected by The Great Depression. He attended Blair Academy on a full scholarship, earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1951, and attended evening and weekend classes at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation he went to work for Walter L. Morgan at Wellington Management Company. ^[1]

After successfully climbing through the ranks, he was named chairman of Wellington but was later fired for an "extremely unwise" merger he approved, a poor decision he considers his biggest mistake stating "The great thing about that mistake, which was shameful and inexcusable and a reflection of immaturity and confidence beyond what the facts justified, was that I learned a lot." ^[2] Bogle then founded Vanguard in 1974. Under his leadership, the company grew to be the second largest mutual fund company in the world. Influenced by the works of Eugene Fama, Burton Malkiel and Paul Samuelson, Mr. Bogle founded the Vanguard 500 Index Fund in 1975 as the first index mutual fund. ^[3]

Bogle on the cover of Common Sense on Mutual Funds

Bogle is a member of the board of trustees at Blair Academy. He is also an advisory board member of the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management. Bogle received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Princeton University in 2005.

He continues to be active in The Vanguard Group.

Bogle also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center^[4] in Philadelphia, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution. He had previously served as Chairman of the Board from 1999 through 2007. He was named Chairman Emeritus in January 2007, when President George H.W. Bush was named Chairman.

Authors Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, and Michael LeBoeuf wrote a book entitled The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing, teaching John Bogle's basic strategies to the novice investor.

On the popular ABC radio show Moneytalk, Bob Brinker frequently touts Bogle's philosophies on investing and recommends his books, particularly Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor.

Bogle and his wife Eve have six children and are grandparents. They reside in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Investment Strategy

Bogle is famous for his insistence, in numerous media appearances and in writing, on the superiority of index funds over traditional actively-managed mutual funds. He believes that it is folly to attempt to pick actively managed mutual funds and expect their performance to beat a well run index fund over a long period of time.

Bogle argues for an approach to investing defined by simplicity and common sense. Below are his eight basic rules for investors:

• Select low-cost funds
• Consider carefully the added costs of advice
• Do not overrate past fund performance
• Use past performance to determine consistency and risk
• Beware of stars (as in, star mutual fund managers)
• Beware of asset size
• Don’t own too many funds
• Buy your fund portfolio – and hold it

Awards and Distinctions

• Named one of the "world’s 100 most powerful and influential people" by TIME magazine in 2004
• Institutional Investor's Lifetime Achievement Award (2004)
• Named one of the investment industry’s four "Giants of the 20th Century" by Fortune magazine in 1999
• Awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for "distinguished achievement in the Nation’s service" (1999)

Books

• Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor (McGraw-Hill, 1993), ISBN 1-55623-860-6
• Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor (John Wiley & Sons, 1999), ISBN 0-471-39228-6
• John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years (McGraw-Hill, 2000), ISBN 0-07-136438-2
• Character Counts: The Creation and Building of The Vanguard Group (McGraw-Hill, 2002) ISBN 0-07-139115-0
• The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism (Yale University Press, 2005), ISBN 0-300-10990-3
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (John Wiley & Sons, 2007), ISBN 978-0-470-10210-7
• Enough : True Measures of Money, Business, and Life (John Wiley & Sons, 2008), ISBN 978-0470398517

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Bogle

• John Bogle's Blog Site
• Biography at Bogle Financial Markets Research Center
• Remarks before the Harvard Club of Boston, January 14, 2003
• Venture Voice podcast interview, February 23, 2006
• Common Sense on Mutual Funds Summary of his 1998 book from Sigma Investing
• "Books of Our Time" interview with John Bogle, January 2007
• Podcast interview with Bogle Bogle discusses investing on EconTalk
• Video: Speech at Pepperdine University
• Investopedia Profile