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

More quotes by 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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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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The principal role of the mutual fund is to serve its investors.
John C. Bogle
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Corporate leaders surely have their problems, I believe that most CEOs are doing their best to hew to the ethical line. The problem is that that line has gotten blurred and that our moral standard seems to be if everybody else is doing it, it's okay. That's not good enough for me.
John C. Bogle
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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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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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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 mutual fund industry has been built, in a sense, on witchcraft.
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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If it is hard to imagine that 20% of losses on the stock market, you should never participate
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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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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Fund investors are confident that they can easily select superior fund managers. They are wrong.
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
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Hint: money flows into most funds after good performance, and goes out when bad performance follows.
John C. Bogle
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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
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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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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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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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In the long run, investing is not about markets at all. Investing is about enjoying the returns earned by businesses.
John C. Bogle