Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution Kindle Edition

Jack Bogle is a hero of mine. I may not be the most fanatical Boglehead, but (i) I regard his achievements with awe, (ii) I've been a Vanguard client more or less since I emigrated to the US and (iii) his mantra of "keep the costs low" has been mine as well for more decades than I care to recall.Alas, this book was a big disappointment. (i) It is a continuous stream of conceit. There's no denying his superlative achievements, but this book reads like an arrogant twenty-something's LinkedIn posting. (ii) The book is desperately short of objectivity He relentlessly presents every argument he can find in support of his own ideology, but the only references to arguments against are to those that he feels he can knock down. (iii) His references to performance are all based on comparative returns, but he makes no mention of comparative volatility.This book would have been *so* much better if it had been written by an outsider. (i) The inevitable huge praise for Vanguard would have come across as much more seemly than the boastful tone to which the reader is subjected here. (ii) The reader would (I hope) have been presented with a much more objective viewpoint. (iii) The points against the Bogle approach would have been evaluated more fairly. I have little doubt that Bogle would have been described as a vitally important and beneficial force in the investment world and that would have carried so much more credibility coming from an outsider than coming from Bogle himself.Your achievements speak for themselves, Jack: you do yourself no favours with such unbridled bragging.

I have read four of John Bogle's books, and his clear analytical advice guided me in investing for my goals over 30 years. His guidance on reducing investment costs to obtain most of the market return has guided me on my own investments and in my role as trustee for several family trusts. In reading his book "Stay the course", it is evident that John Bogle puts the fund shareholder's interest first and his personal gain near the last. This is exactly the reverse of most investment adviser. In each of his books and in my interactions with Vanguard employees, it is clear that the fund investor's interest is ranked first. I recommend all of Mr. Bogle's books.

This history of Vanguard could had been written in a more concise way. Although there are interesting tidbits about the development of the idea behind Vanguard, the writing isn’t the best. I think this is one of the books to be borrowed from a library.

A wonderful history of a man and company that changed the world. As stated time and time again, no single individual has done more to fight for the average investor than Jack Bogle. The book is a wonderful biography of Vanguard and Jack's history. Well done 👍

Great story of how John Bogle worked hard to implement his investment strategy which instead of allowing him to succeed at others expense as is usually the case, the more he succeeded the more his clients succeeded.

Book was as expected. Good understanding of how market funds work for the investor.

He was smart and one of the people you can really count on for advice . Always a good read

Good information and history on John's life and the creation of Vanguard.

Simple message.

John C Bogle was the founder and former CEO of The Vanguard Group (creator of the world’s first index mutual fund). This book is part corporate history on Vanguard’s origin and development and part life lessons drawn from his considerable experience but despite some interesting nuggets here neither part really satisfies as the corporate history dwells too heavily on fund performance and the life lessons are brief and superficial.I picked this up because I had heard of Bogle’s financial acumen and of his reputation for emphasising the difference between investment and speculation and promoting the former. I’m also a bit of a sucker for corporate history because I enjoy reading about why companies were set up and then learning of the successes, stumbles and lessons learned as they go from start-up to established player. So I came into it with high hopes, partly driven by the Blurb on the Back, which is unfortunately not what I found on the page.The book is structured into 4 parts:- Part 1 is the story of Vanguard, which is set out in a lineal fashion and starts with some personal information from Bogle about his student days and how his college thesis at Princeton was about mutual funds (which, in turn, landed him his very first job after university). Each chapters generally focuses on a different time periods in Vanguard’s history (e.g. 1974-1981) although there are also chapters on Bogle’s legacy and a general chapter on how other fund providers picked up and sought to emulate Vanguard’s success with index funds of their own;- Part 2 looks at a history of Vanguard’s funds. This for me was dry and fairly pointless as Bogle literally goes through the various types of fund that Vanguard established and then looks at the performance of the same. Given that so many of the funds are now closed, I really struggled to see who would benefit from this and although Bogle displays candour in admitting when he was wrong to have a product set up because of underperformance, he is very low in analysis as to why he made that wrong decision (usually dismissing it as giving in to the desire to market rather than invest, which seems strange given he was clearly a driven man who led from the front);- Part 3 contains some of Bogle’s thoughts on the future of investment management, which I did find genuinely interesting as Bogle takes on academic critics who point to the concentration of ownership in index funds and what this might mean for competition going forward. I actually wanted more of this as he gets stuck into what fund ownership means and what can be done with it; and- Part 4 which is a loose collection of Bogle’s personal reflections on life and finance, all very short paragraphs, which for me didn’t bring a huge amount to the book and could easily have been cut.What does come through the different chapters is that Bogle was firmly committed to the principle of maximising returns to investors and truly believed that index tracking mutual funds were the best ways of keeping costs down to keep returns solid. I certainly didn’t disagree with his disapproval of more traditional fund structures where ownership is with the managing company, which can then cream off fees, thus reducing the amount available to the investors who are actually paying for it. I also couldn’t argue with his points about how active managed funds generally fail to beat the market in the long term when compared with passive trackers - certainly this is a point that a number of UK based financial commentators have been highlighting for those interested in market investments. He’s also good in taking apart exchange-traded index funds (ETFs), which he categorises as a speculation vehicle rather than an investment index fund product on the basis that investors are encouraged to trade them rather than hold onto the shares long-term, which is where the real value comes from.Some of the writing is a little dry (and the constant repetition of “stay the course” got very old, very quickly for me) and at times the book reads as if Bogle has some scores to settle as he seeks to prove wrong those who criticised what he was trying to do back in the day. I don’t begrudge someone a little payback when they’ve been proved right, but again this is all done quite dryly and Bogle doesn’t really give a lot of himself away in the book - even in the final part, which is supposed to be more personal I didn’t get a huge sense of who he was as a person. I would have liked some more detail about the internal company discussions at big points in Vanguard’s history (such as the decision to bring management in house) but it appears that Bogle was stymied by the decision of the board not to allow him use/visibility of board minutes from the time so the book instead relies heavily on Bogle’s more benign memories, which are broad and low on detail. I was also a little frustrated that the book makes no comment on Vanguard since Bogle left the company in 1999 other than to discuss fund performance - again, I admire his discretion but it would still be interesting to know his views on the direction that the company is going in.Ultimately I came away from this book feeling that it’s neither one thing nor the other. It doesn’t really work as a corporate history because Bogle deliberately focuses on funds and figures rather than the corporation or its culture. Nor does it work as a “part-memoir” given that Bogle doesn’t seem keen to give too much of himself away. There are some interesting nuggets in here but you have to go through some dry material to get there. However, I have heard good things about his other books on investment and would be minded to check them out.

This is the late John Bogle's 12th book and comes in at nearly 300 pages.It is split into four parts. The first part (c150 pages) gives a potted history of Vanguard from 1974 to 2018.The second part (c60 pages) is a gallop through the main funds, or type of funds, that Vanguard has produced.The third part (c30 pages) is a rumination on the future of the investment industry, while the fourth part (c30 pages) covers personal reflections.It's an okay book, but really didn't do it for me. It's an easy read, although sometimes the endless figures do blur a little in the mind.It's a lightweight, semi-autobiography. Overall I suppose it's not the book I wanted to read. I would have preferred something a little more objective and something with a little more context (other than "we were the first...we became the best").I got to the end and thought "so what?". Mr Bogle was certainly a legend in the industry, and his history deserves to be known and celebrated. But I'm not that interested in the fund management landscape in the US in the 1960s and 1970s.There's nothing wrong with this book, it's just not what I hoped it would be.

If you have seen Bogle in person, being interviewed, he was a calm unexcitable chap, and the book certainly reflects that. Its all rather dead-pan. That is a pity, because Jack Bogle set in train and managed the biggest revolution in investing history. He saw very clearly the conflicts of interest in the business, the impact of long run costs, and the inability of fund managers to beat the index. We owe the advent of low cost, index funds to him and from relatively small beginnings these became dominant in the investing landscape. It is such a boon for the retail investor (those that know what they are doing that is) to be able to invest in the S&P 500, every share, at very little cost and given patience be sure of performing better than 95% of the fund managers trying to beat that index. He has of course just died, so this is a timely publication. Given the importance of his life work, from which, incidentally, he never made vast amounts of money.. to his credit he never sold out. If you want to see an interview, search Amazon Prime video, they had one featuring him at least an hour long, a month or two ago. Worth listening to, Easier than the book, I would say, which is well illustrated and lots of diagrams

This is the first book of john Bogles that I have read. I found it very easy to read. A smooth flow to the writing and not at all complex. However that could be the fault., He doesnt go into any real depth on the subject. It reads more like a list of diary entries that have been beefed up into a story line. Having said that I really did enjoy reading it and it did flow smoothly. However it loses a star as it really isnt what I hoped for or what it could have been. I was hoping for a biography of the great man and more personal insights and details. They simply are not there. This book is really an executive summary of a number of key events and miles tones in his professional life. No more no less. Still its a good read so if you are stuck for a new book then its worth giving a go. But for the reasons outlined it really doesn't deserve more than 3 stars