John C. Bogle Quotes & Sayings

It's amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he's paid a small fortune not to understand it. — John C. Bogle

The miracle of compounding returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs. — John C. Bogle

In the long run, investing is not about markets at all. Investing is about enjoying the returns earned by businesses. — John C. Bogle

I think it's gone much too far. Most of them are not worth the powder to blow them to hell. — John C. Bogle

The multiple failings of our flawed financial sector are jeopardizing, not only the retirement security of our nation's savers but the economy in which our entire society participates. — John C. Bogle

So the misplaced assumption is that we have this whole new institutional element where these [financial] institutions are looking after their own financial interests before the financial interests of the principals, princi-pals whose interests they are really bound to observe first. — John C. Bogle

The idea that a bell rings to signal when investors should get into or out of the stock market is simply not credible. After nearly fifty years in this business, I do not know of anybody who has done it successfully and consistently. I don't even know anybody who knows anybody who has done it successfully and consistently. Yet market timing appears to be increasingly embraced by mutual fund investors and the professional managers of fund portfolios alike. — John C. Bogle

Ask yourself: Am I an investor, or am I a speculator? An investor is a person who owns business and holds it forever and enjoys the returns that U.S. businesses, and to some extent global businesses, have earned since the beginning of time. Speculation is betting on price. Speculation has no place in the portfolio or the kit of the typical investor. — John C. Bogle

Your success in investing will depend in part on your character and guts, and in part on your ability to realize at the height of ebullience and the depth of despair alike that this too shall pass. — John C. Bogle

Successful investing is about owning businesses and reaping the huge rewards provided by the dividends and earnings growth of our nation's - and, for that matter, the world's - corporations. — John C. Bogle

If the data do not prove that indexing wins, well, the data are wrong. — John C. Bogle

I will create value for society, rather than extract it. — John C. Bogle

While the apostles of the new so-called "behavioral" theory present ample evidence of how often human beings make irrational financial decisions, it remains to be seen whether these decisions lead to predictable errors that create systematic mispricings upon which rational investors can readily and economically capitalize. — John C. Bogle

Managed funds are astonishingly tax-inefficient. — John C. Bogle

The mutual fund industry has been built, in a sense, on witchcraft. — John C. Bogle

Income earned by the sweat of your brow should be taxed at the lowest rates, not the highest. Capital gains should be taxed at a higher rate. — John C. Bogle

But whatever the consensus on the EMH, I know of no serious academic, professional money manager, trained security analyst, or intelligent individual investor who would disagree with the thrust of EMH: The stock market itself is a demanding taskmaster. It sets a high hurdle that few investors can leap. — John C. Bogle

Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy. — John C. Bogle

As I have earlier noted, the most important things in life and in business can't be measured. The trite bromide 'If you can measure it, you can manage it' has been a hindrance in the building a great real-world organization, just as it has been a hindrance in evaluating the real-world economy. It is character, not numbers, that make the world go 'round. How can we possibly measure the qualities of human existence that give our lives and careers meaning? How about grace, kindness, and integrity? What value do we put on passion, devotion, and trust? How much do cheerfulness, the lilt of a human voice, and a touch of pride add to our lives? Tell me, please, if you can, how to value friendship, cooperation, dedication, and spirit. Categorically, the firm that ignores the intangible qualities that the human beings who are our colleagues bring to their careers will never build a great workforce or a great organization. — John C. Bogle

The stock market is a giant distraction to the business of investing. — John C. Bogle

Don't look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack! — John C. Bogle

The courage to press on regardless
regardless of whether we face calm seas or rough seas, and especially when the market storms howl around us
is the quintessential attribute of the successful investor. — John C. Bogle

Yes, the investor is often his own worst enemy. Yes, the marketing colossus known as the mutual fund industry provides the weaponry which enables investors' to indulge their suicidal instincts. No, the fund industry was hardly an innocent bystander in the market boom and the subsequent carnage. "We have met the enemy and he is us" ... all of us. — John C. Bogle

If your fund doesn't last for the long term, how can you invest for the long term? — John C. Bogle

Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It's cheaper! — John C. Bogle

We are facing incredible challenges in the economy of the U.S. and the economy of the globe, but the stock market, we never know whether it's over-discounted or under-discounted or got exactly right its anticipation. — John C. Bogle

Surprise! The returns reported by mutual funds aren't actually earned by mutual fund investors. — John C. Bogle

Investing is not nearly as difficult as it looks. Successful investing involves doing a few things right and avoiding serious mistakes. — John C. Bogle

You know the rule of 72, divide the number into 72, any number you want, and that's how long it will take your money to double. — John C. Bogle

The transfer of Wall Street from private ownership to public ownership has been a big step backward. — John C. Bogle

Hint: money flows into most funds after good performance, and goes out when bad performance follows. — John C. Bogle

The historical data support one conclusion with unusual force: To invest with success, you must be a long-term investor. — John C. Bogle

The principal role of the mutual fund is to serve its investors. — John C. Bogle

In Las Vegas we all know that it's the croupiers who win. At the race track, it's those who control the handle who win. State lotteries, does anybody think the participants in the lottery win? No. The state wins. — John C. Bogle

Index funds eliminate the risks of individual stocks, market sectors, and manager selection. Only stock market risk remains. — John C. Bogle

Rely on the ordinary virtues that intelligent, balanced human beings have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance. — John C. Bogle

My biggest prediction for the future is that people are going to start looking after individual investors. — John C. Bogle

We need a mutual fund industry with both vision and values; a vision of fiduciary duty and shareholder service, and values rooted in the proven principles of long-term investing and of trusteeship that demands integrity in serving our clients. — John C. Bogle

The point is that market returns are determined by both investment factors - the fundamentals of the initial dividend yield on stocks plus the rate at which their earnings grow - and by speculative factors - the change in the price that investors will pay for each $1 of corporate earnings. — John C. Bogle

Fund investors are confident that they can easily select superior fund managers. They are wrong. — John C. Bogle

The mistakes we make as investors is when the market's going up, we think it's going to go up forever. When the market goes down, we think it's going to go down forever. Neither of those things actually happen. Doesn't do anything forever. It's by the moment. — John C. Bogle

The general systems of money management today require people to pretend to do something they can't do and like something they don't. It's a funny business because on a net basis, the whole investment management business together gives no value added to all buyers combined. That's the way it has to work. Mutual funds charge two percent per year and then brokers switch people between funds, costing another three to four percentage points. The poor guy in the general public is getting a terrible product from the professionals. — John C. Bogle

It's 1450 out of 1500 ETF funds that I just wouldn't touch because they're not diversified enough. Or they have some huge speculative twist to them that if you can guess the markets right you will do very well for a day or two but who can do that? Nobody. — John C. Bogle

On balance, the financial system subracts value from society — John C. Bogle

If it is hard to imagine that 20% of losses on the stock market, you should never participate — John C. Bogle

Speculation leads you the wrong way. It allows you to put your emotions first, whereas investment gets emotions out of the picture. — John C. Bogle

The grim irony of investing, then, is that we investors as a group not only don't get what we pay for, we get precisely what we don't pay for. So if we pay for nothing, we get everything. — John C. Bogle

If you have trouble imagining a 20% loss in the stock market, you shouldn't be in stocks. — John C. Bogle

"Now you can trade the S&P 500 Index in real time" was the slogan in the newspapers for the first ETF. What kind of nut would do that? — John C. Bogle

Reversion to the mean is the iron rule of the financial markets. — John C. Bogle