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

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
Things
Investing
Mistakes
Serious
Mistake
Successful
Difficult
Avoiding
Looks
Involves
Right
Nearly

More quotes by John C. Bogle

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In the long run, investing is not about markets at all. Investing is about enjoying the returns earned by businesses.
John C. Bogle
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The relationship between executive CEO pay, stock performance is tenuous and not easily unscrambled, just one of myriad factors that affect the price of a stock.
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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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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While I haven't read economist Robin Hahnel's work, replacing capitalism would be at the very bottom of my list of priorities - to be considered only after everything else had been tried. Improving our capitalistic system however, is at the top of my list and is of course the major theme of The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism.
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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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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Reversion to the mean is the iron rule of the financial markets.
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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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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The transfer of Wall Street from private ownership to public ownership has been a big step backward.
John C. Bogle
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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
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On balance, the financial system subracts value from society
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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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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Fund investors are confident that they can easily select superior fund managers. They are wrong.
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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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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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