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The miracle of compounding returns has been overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs.

John C. Bogle

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John C. Bogle
Age: 89 †
Born: 1929
Born: May 8
Died: 2019
Died: January 16
Economist
Financier
Investor
Montclair Township
John Clifton Jack Bogle
Jack Bogle
Cost
Return
Compounding
Returns
Overwhelmed
Costs
Investing
Tyranny
Miracle

More quotes by John C. Bogle

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The principal role of the mutual fund is to serve its investors.
John C. Bogle
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The business has some problems, substantial problems. You go fix it, you young people. That's what you're there for. Don't believe what the old generation tells you. We don't know a damn thing, including Bogle.
John C. Bogle
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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
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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
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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
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I believe that the mutual fund industry's biggest shortcoming is too much focus on the momentary price of a stock - an illusion - and too little focus on the intrinsic value of the corporation - the ultimate reality. I'm comforted by the fact that Warren Buffett feels the same way.
John C. Bogle
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I will create value for society, rather than extract it.
John C. Bogle
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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
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If the data do not prove that indexing wins, well, the data are wrong.
John C. Bogle
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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
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Among my greatest disappointments about the mutual fund industry - in addition to excessive costs and excessive focus on the short-term - is that fund managers have been passive participants in corporate governance.
John C. Bogle
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I believe that the behavior of too many of our corporations investment bankers and fund managers has jeopardized some of the trust that investors have had. It's not the economic engine that we need to focus on, but the need to make sure that our investors receive their fair share of the returns that that great economic system produces.
John C. Bogle
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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
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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
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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
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If your fund doesn't last for the long term, how can you invest for the long term?
John C. Bogle
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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
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If you're very talented and keep winning, you'll do just fine. It may take a while. But the talent is hard to identify and talent is hard to tell from luck. There's an awful lot of luck in this business. Past performance is not helpful in judging future performance.
John C. Bogle
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I would always advise young people to follow their star - not my star. They have to live their own life. If they decide they want to go into the investment business, do it, but make it a better business than it is today.
John C. Bogle
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Sure there are some companies at the margins of our society that probably do that and I think we all have the responsibility as consumers and as investors to avoid them like the plague. If we do, they won't last very long. Doing what's right is the only possible formula for long-term - I emphasize long term - business success.
John C. Bogle