The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns Hardcover – January 1, 2007

I have read the most recent version of Malkiel’s “A Random Walk Down Mainstreet,” and it made me thankful for those people who actually go out and try to make a return for themselves on the market. It provides a service that current leftist critiques of finance capitalism forget – they provide liquidity and aid price discovery. Now, that is just a small part of what they do, and the bulk of their profits are actual rents, and half of the people will end up losers whatever system they try – because there are some patterns in the market, but I am a believer that the market will stay irrational longer than I can stay liquid. I guess at heart I am pretty conservative about what I do with my money because people like Malkiel and Bogle speak to me so much.This book is like a cover version of Malkiel’s classic, coming in with a shorter page count and being less of a sales document – though where the recent “Random Walk” made me curious about Wealthfront and reading this made me go to the Vanguard website, I still am paying more in fees than I should to the company-administered 403(b) even in their so-called Index Fund. This is a pretty well-written book, but it does have a bit of an odd structure, with short chapters closed by asides referencing the current point made with an outside source instead of integrating it in the main chapter. Overall, though, it is a strong case for indexing your funds and taking advantage of the work the active traders do. When you are buying the market, you are giving up the chance of some great stock or sector that goes parabolic, but it also prevents you from thinking you are clever and taking a short position in that same sector just before it goes parabolic. Buy and hold and buy again seems to be the best way to ensure that the money you do invest will be there when you need it at the end of your life. I’m not trying to get rich by any means, but I’m also not looking to degrade the quality of my life at the end.

Jack Bogle's latest book provides an excellent introduction to low-cost and low-risk Boglehead-style investing. The subtitle reads "The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns", but that is too modest. In fact, the content nearly guarantees that an investor can receive better returns than 90% of invested money over the long term.When buying this book, I was looking for a good book to give friends and family who are still gambling with individual stocks and actively-managed mutual funds. Bogle's new book comes close to the mark, and is especially compelling when demonstrating that index funds are a better investment than active mutual funds for most investors.The role of taxes, fund expenses and investor behavior on investors' returns is solidly brought home in this book. Not much new information for the already-converted Bogleheads among us, but good intellectual wisdom for investors not familiar with these forms of investment return thievery.This book also includes a discussion of bonds and bond funds, where similar points are driven home.Common Sense Investing is less compelling in demonstrating that index funds are better than individual stocks for most investors. The risk of individual stocks is described as uncompensated, but it could have benefited from more persuasive quantitative evidence to bring home the point.Bogle projects the next decade's stock market returns, which is a bonus. Bogle provides persuasive rational for relying on dividend yields, earnings growth and changes in speculation in describing returns.The Table of Contents is less than 100% descriptive of the contents and the absence of an index makes it a little difficult to use the book as a reference.Common Sense Investing is a great book, but would have benefited from more discussion of asset allocation, which is a huge determinate of returns. Thus it does not stand as a single book to guide investment decision-making.A great gift book to give to stock market gamblers.

Per l'investitore medio. Tramite prove supportate da dati numerici e principi di comune buonsenso, l'autore apre gli occhi al lettore sulla realtà legata ai fondi di investimento attivi solitamente proposti in banca. Realtà fatta di conflitti di interesse, alte commissioni e basse performance. Tali caratteristiche negative non sono presenti nei fondi indicizzati presentati dall'autore come il miglior mezzo di investimento per tutti.

Down to earth, easy to read and a very concrete. Right to the good stuff and no running around in circles.Would really recommend for anyone looking to invest and/or looking for more knowledge.

Escrito em linguagem de fácil entendimento, apesar da complexidade do tema, é leitura essencial para os interessados em investimentos em geral.

Great book about how to manage real expectations and how to use common sense in our investments. I can only recommend it

Bogle is the inventor of the index-tracking fund, so it's no surprise that this is all about index investing. He gives all of the arguments for it, and supports it with many quotes from the big names. Here's Warren Buffett:"By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investor can actually out-perform most investment professionals. Paradoxically, when 'dumb' money acknowledges its limitations, it ceases to be dumb .... Those index funds that are very low cost .... are investor-friendly by definition and are the best selection for most of those who wish to own equities"So, read this book to get a solid understanding of index trackers. I'd couple it with my favourite book on investing: Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School, where amongst other things you'll learn how to hold a portfolio of equities and bonds, rebalancing every year or so, which forces you to buy low and sell high.Be careful which index you choose to track though. I'm not convinced about the FTSE , as it has plenty of miners and stodgy companies. The S&P 500 has more of a tech bias, and is perhaps a better cross section of US industry than the FTSE is of UK industry. And it's not good to track an index that mostly goes nowhere. On the other hand, if you track the S&P or Nasdaq you'll have exposure to USD/GBP FX, which you probably don't want. You may not agree with me, and that's fine; I just believe that you should think very carefully about which equity index to track. Unlike US investors, this isn't such an easy question to answer.