The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is the classic guide to getting smart about the market. Legendary mutual fund pioneer John C. Bogle reveals his key to getting more out of investing: low-cost index funds. Bogle describes the simplest and most effective investment strategy for building wealth over the long term: buy and hold, at very low cost, a mutual fund that tracks a broad stock market Index such as the S&P 500.

While the stock market has tumbled and then soared since the first edition of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing was published in April 2007, Bogle's investment principles have endured and served investors well. This tenth anniversary edition includes updated data and new information but maintains the same long-term perspective as in its predecessor. Bogle has also added two new chapters designed to provide further guidance to investors: one on asset allocation, the other on retirement investing.

A portfolio focused on index funds is the only investment that effectively guarantees your fair share of stock market returns. This strategy is favored by Warren Buffett, who said this about Bogle: "For decades, Jack has urged investors to invest in ultra-low-cost index funds.... Today, however, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he helped millions of investors realize far better returns on their savings than they otherwise would have earned. He is a hero to them and to me."

Bogle shows you how to make index investing work for you and help you achieve your financial goals and finds support from some of the world's best financial minds: not only Warren Buffett but Benjamin Graham, Paul Samuelson, Burton Malkiel, Yale's David Swensen, Cliff Asness of AQR, and many others.

This new edition of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing offers you the same solid strategy as its predecessor for building your financial future.

Build a broadly diversified, low-cost portfolio without the risks of individual stocks, manager selection, or sector rotation.
Forget the fads and marketing hype, and focus on what works in the real world.
Understand that stock returns are generated by three sources (dividend yield, earnings growth, and change in market valuation) in order to establish rational expectations for stock returns over the coming decade.
Recognize that in the long run, business reality trumps market expectations.
Learn how to harness the magic of compounding returns while avoiding the tyranny of compounding costs.

While index investing allows you to sit back and let the market do the work for you, too many investors trade frantically, turning a winner's game into a loser's game. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is a solid guidebook to your financial future.

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Listening Length	5 hours and 50 minutes
Author	John C. Bogle
Narrator	L. J. Ganser
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	December 05, 2017
Publisher	Audible Studios
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B077VYLVGP
Best Sellers Rank	#674 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #3 in Mutual Funds Investing (Books) #11 in Finance (Books) #17 in Investing & Trading

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3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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P. C. Parker

The entire book can be summed up in one sentence.

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018

Verified Purchase

Buy an index fund, preferably the S&P 500. That's it. I just saved you $16.
An absolute waste of money.

891 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pablo Wunderlich

Excellent guidance before investing for the long-term.

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

This book was an awesome read to a new-comer in the scene of investing. I'm not sophisticated in finance. Nor am I wanting to become too knowledgeable in this topic. I just needed to understand the basic to plunge in and invest in an easy, simple portfolio. But doing so takes a whole lot more understanding than just following a simple portfolio recipe. To make my simple portfolio, I dived into Mr Bogle's book. He explained how things work in the finance world, at least enough for me to feel confident about the decisions I'm now making in the finance department. I would recommend this to any beginner investor seeking more knowledge in the field of finance.

109 people found this helpful

Helpful

WhiteFordFalcon

Sound, Simple Advice... that will make you a millionaire!

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

Iconic Jack Bogle dispenses easy to understand, clear and irrefutable investing guidance in this short book. Packed with excellent learnings! My ONLY regret is that I didn’t have/read this book sooner in my life... would doubtlessly have saved me tens of thousands of dollars! Bottom line... READ THIS BOOK, follow Jack’s timeless lessons, then periodically read it again as a reference!

58 people found this helpful

Helpful

FitnessAddict

Buy Vanguard Index Funds - The founder of Vanguard

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

300 pages of buy the Vanguard S&P Index Fund I created and not a mutual fund because mutual funds have too many fees. Baloney. There are several mutual funds out there with less than a 1% expense ratio, no other fees, and better returns than the one index fund this book continuously pushes.

39 people found this helpful

Helpful

David R. Voth

A quick read, an engaging page-turner that can provide some fundamental insights

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

Mr. Bogle makes a solid argument repeatedly, by approaching the same question from multiple directions and supporting it with unimpeachable numbers. It reinforced some views that I had already developed on my own, but also clued me in to the adverse effects over time of high expense ratios and transaction costs.

When I finished the book I liquidated a stock that pays a decent dividend but seems to have little growth potential, and a mutual fund that has excessive costs that I had overlooked. I put the money in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund that already made up a significant part of my portfolio.

I agree with other reviewers who have criticized the book as repetitive, but it's worth reading for its style, wit, and clarity.

44 people found this helpful

Helpful

S. Why

Easy to Understand

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Good, quick read with great information for anyone who is trying to make sense of personal finance and basic investments. Everyone should read this in their 20s before filling out the paperwork for their first workplace 401K. If you read this one book you'll know enough to invest sensibly for retirement without getting ripped off by financial product salespeople, and you'll understand more about investing than 85% of the general population.

42 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bihorean

Very informative for an investing noob like me!

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

Such a great book for a confused investing noob. Got me up to speed in understanding why passive index fund investing is the only worry free long term strategy that consistenly wins, and why active trading always returns to the mean. I finally consolidated my retirement account and opened a vanguard account to move my assets into. Thanks John Bogle!

26 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joan Lowrance

How to be a wise investor

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you want to know all about stocks and bonds, then this is the book for you. You can’t go wrong. John gives it to you using simple arithmetic showing you what to watch for and how to save money so that you get the most earnings out of your investments. Reading his book is like taking classes in investing as it will fill your head with so much knowledge that people will be asking you for advice. Follow his advice and sit back while your stocks/bonds pay you in dividends and earnings.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

mr a t whitehurst

Just an expensive advert for a asset managers business. Avoid

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is just an advert for vanguard investment services. I’ll save you the time and money of reading it: the books core message is buy low cost index funds and hold them forever.

If you actually want to learn how to trade stocks and shares, don’t buy this book. It’s a complete waste of time.

28 people found this helpful

hksdhds

A compelling argument for index investing.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you heard about investing (usually a sign we're in a bubble or getting there) and you're thinking of start investing you should start with this book.

It makes a really compelling argument for investing using an index fund and saving time and energy for other things you may enjoy more than researching companies, etc.

Over the long terms:
- Costs compound badly
- Active investors on average fail to produce good results because of the costs of trading and CGT (Capital Gain Taxes) expenses
- By buying an index you reduce the emotional stress and you'd be less likely of panic or get greedy

For some reason I still think the book is missing something in terms of preparing the reader for the frequent and normal up and down of the markets.

31 people found this helpful

Dunroving

If you read only one book on investing in equity and bond funds, read this one!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

I wish I had come across this book in 1996, when I first started investing in funds. At the time, I was living in the US, where most pensions are defined contribution and require you to take charge of where your contributions are invested. Over the years, I have made the following errors: (1) investing in individual companies; (2) investing in "fads" (specifically, tech funds in 2000!); (3) not learning enough about bonds; (4) having a portfolio that was unbalanced in terms of equities and bonds, geographic regions, and sectors; and (5) not paying attention to fund costs.

Over the years, I have learned these lessons slowly but surely (and sometimes painfully!) I can honestly say that if I'd had this book back in 1996, I wouldn't have made nearly as many mistakes.

In the 1970s, John Bogle was the visionary that understood that the best strategy for almost every investor who is in it for the long haul is to invest broadly in index (tracker) funds with low charges. That's it! Sounds simple, and if you don't want to spend 14 quid on the book, just do this. But in comparison to the long-term costs of investing, 14 quid is nothing, and the book will help you understand WHY this is such a good long-term strategy. Using numerous data-based examples, Bogle illustrates why this works, and the pitfalls of not following it. All the data show that "expert" stock-pickers do no better than chance, compared to index funds, and because of factors such as reversion to the mean, and of course higher costs, they do worse.

I read this book in just 2 days. Besides maybe Dave Ramsay's book "Financial Peace", it is by far the easiest book on investment that I have ever read. Considering the move within the UK towards defined-contribution occupational pension schemes, it should be required reading.

10 people found this helpful

Francesco De Paoli

Like watching an old man pleasuring himself in the Wall Street subway station

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

I heard of this book on an Investopedia articled titled "The 9 Best Books for Young Investors in 2021" that says: "If there’s only one book young investors need to learn about the stock market, retirement investing strategies, and real estate investment opportunities, we recommend “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing” by John C. Bogle."
Intrigued, I was expecting some sort of a guide on the stock market: some sort of "for Dummies" book but better.

Instead, what I found was a finance-themed self-help book which, like all self-help books, stretches a single simple concept for 200+ pages.
Here's the gist of the book: invest in index funds, don't waste your time and money by investing in single stocks or mutual funds.
That's it, I saved you 10 quids.
The book introduces this concept in the first 10 pages and proceeds to bludgeon you on the head with it for the remaining 190 pages. All the while relentlessly pouring unfunny jokes, quotes from Warren Buffet (if I wanted to hear from him I would've gone to the source thanks), and the author's unbearable self-aggrandizing as a "pioneer" of index funds. That's right, the author has a vested interest in index funds since he created Vanguard, one of the most famous index funds.

Basically with this book you're buying an ad.

If there's an upside from this situation is that from now on I won't every buy a stock market book again: I will just borrow ebooks from the library and read them on my non-Amazon ereader.

Stay away from this total scam.

10 people found this helpful

Charlie

Eye opening, concise and humbling introduction to the indexing revolution.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

Well, every now and then you choose a real gem of a read that changes your entire perspective on a subject you are pursuing. Having read many investment books over the years, this little book blew me away. Honest, concise, informative and a spring board to further study if you wish (Bogle’s “Common Sense On Mutual Funds” is incredible, but if you don’t desire to read 600pages, this little book gives you the outline and understanding to make more informed choices), this book has greatly enhanced my understanding on stock/ bond investing. Literally as if a veil that had clouded my vision was gradually removed with each page absorbed. Recommended.

12 people found this helpful

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