Common Sense on Mutual Funds: Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition

John C. Bogle shares his extensive insights on investing in mutual funds

Since the first edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds was published in 1999, much has changed, and no one is more aware of this than mutual fund pioneer John Bogle. Now, in this completely updated Second Edition, Bogle returns to take another critical look at the mutual fund industry and help investors navigate their way through the staggering array of investment alternatives that are available to them. .

Written in a straightforward and accessible style, this reliable resource examines the fundamentals of mutual fund investing in today's turbulent market environment and offers timeless advice in building an investment portfolio. Along the way, Bogle shows you how simplicity and common sense invariably trump costly complexity, and how a low cost, broadly diversified portfolio is virtually assured of outperforming the vast majority of Wall Street professionals over the long-term.

• Written by respected mutual fund industry legend John C. Bogle
• Discusses the timeless fundamentals of investing that apply in any type of market
• Reflects on the structural and regulatory changes in the mutual fund industry
• Other titles by Bogle: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing and Enough.

Securing your financial future has never seemed more difficult, but you'll be a better investor for having read the Second Edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds.

John (Jack) Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds is a must read and with the updated data, Mr. Bogle's wise words of wisdom have been confirmed that Index Investing does pay off in the long run. God Bless you Jack in preaching common sense. We are forever indebted to you.

Bogle has long promoted the idea that one of the more important aspects of mutual fund investment is to pick low cost funds, among other criteria. It seems hypocritical of him to allow his publisher to charge the outrageous price of $16.47 for the Kindle version of this book. This book should be $9.99 and every Kindle owner who is interested in this book should boycott it until the price comes down to that. The current price suggest greed and arrogance.

If you are looking for one book to start with to learn about investing this is a great start. John Bogle founded the Vanguard Group and he is an advocate for low cost index funds. This book will help you learn about mutual fund expenses, how to compare funds against and index and what to look for in management. This book won't teach you everything you need to know about investing but it will make it a lot easier to learn more if you want to.

Jack Bogle has produced a real monster of a resource this time! This greatly expanded volume (some 650 pages in all!) has all the verve and audacity of a work you'd expect from industry rogue, Bogle, and is jampacked with new information and updated statistics that help to make his message seem more relevant now than ever before. In the Preface to the 10th Anniversary Edition, Bogle addresses the recent upheaval in the markets in the context of his time-tested formula for ensuring the integral, health of investors' portfolios and posting consistent gains over the long haul. Bogle's investment philosophy emphasizes the importance of maintaining a streamlined portfolio that relies on stock indexing and conservative, long-range predictions regarding growth.

Avoiding the kind of I-told-you-so rhetoric that many readers may find off-putting in these difficult times, Bogle diplomatically explains how recent trends in the markets confirm the advantages of owning a highly diversified portfolio managed according to certain intelligent investment principles, which he has termed the 12 Pillars of Wisdom. He gives hope to investors who may have made some wrong turns or were misled during the housing boom by offering them a practical plan for how to get their investments back on the right track.

Bogle's game has always been mutual funds--he's one of the originators and foremost experts in America on this unique investment type. In the ten years since the original publication of Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor and the 35 years since he founded the Vanguard Group, John C. Bogle has remained the one constant an industry where fortunes and reputations are made and lost practically overnight. This 10th Anniversary Edition explains why mutual funds continue to be effective financial instruments that work by leveraging the combined buying power of a large pool of investors and equitably distributing gains and losses among the ownership pool. Bolge points out which types of mutual funds to add to your portfolio and which to stay away from based on their proven track records of long-range durability. In an insightful final section titled "On Spirit," Bogle offers actionable solutions for dealing with a market that operates according to principles of instability that mirror those of human psychology. Bogle's investment philosophy is perfect for the risk-averse investor, which, let's face it, is pretty much everyone these days.

Another pertinent investment strategy book published this year, which captures the DIY spirit of the John C. Bogle's "Common Sense on Mutual Funds" is Thomas C. Scott's Fasten Your Financial Seatbelt: What A Fatal Plane Crash Taught Me About Retirement Planning. This guide articulates an investment game plan similar to Bogle's. It has the added advantage of being is a quick and easy read, especially when compared with Bogle's more ponderous tome.

After 10 years, this classic Jack Bogle book continues to be the clearest and most concise book published to date on why index investing works, and why it will continue to be the superior investment strategy for investors in the future. What has Mr. Bogle changed since his first edition? Not much. And that is strong testament for this strategy.