The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns

I read this over and over again. It is such a great book, lots of wisdom in a compact form. If there is a downturn in the markets, or if people become more pessimistic, it is good to just go back to this book and get grounded in fundamentals rather than following the crowd and sell everything. I encourage anyone just starting out to read this, or even to younger folk to know what to do once they start having income.

Beautifully crafted information by Bogle. My 1st book I’ve bought of his after first learning about him from an investment article. I will be getting more books from him and his mentions once I finish this one. A little more than halfway through with it, but I read it every day and write notes when I have down time at work 🤙

My spouse was really starting to ask me a few too many questions about investing in the stock market ever since the pandemic started. It's actually caused me to seek help from a psychologist. Finally, I decided to just buy this book for my wife's birthday. She was so happy to get it. However, she wasn't reading it... At all! So my daughter picked it up one day and wrapped it up again and gave it to her boyfriend for his birthday! So I purchased another copy for my spouse, and left it near the dining room table. Now every time my wife asks me an investment question, I point to the book. It's been an incredible tool in this regard. And the red cover!! It's excellent!! It's hard to lose the book. It's so visible and easy to point at whenever questions about investing arise, I just point at the book. It's been awesome!! And it's mainly about how to avoid fees, value investing through index funds...common sense investing stuff. It's beautiful! And I've heard that my daughter's boyfriend is actually reading the book and is learning a lot and loving it. My psychological issues have disappated and I'm no longer needing talk therapy. I love this book! Buy the book! It's brilliant! Especially for people who refuse to read and just ask annoying questions, or a person getting into investing for the first time.

I think the book is worth reading but is outdated and could be much more concise. John Bogle essentially argues for 266 pages that index investing (due to little porfolio turnover, low costs, and ability to hold forever) is better than buying actively managed mutual funds. He argues the same with bonds (own indexed over actively managed). I think this is good advice, but does he need to repeat himself over and over for 266 on this point? Just like actively managed mutual funds - it is inefficient. It does hammer the point away so you never forget it, but John Bogle is clearly a smart guy, and he could condense his book. The other big problem is that his core concept is no longer as universal as it once was. Mr. Bogle's whole argument is essentially the low costs of index funds is superior to paying for all the fees associated with mutual funds and stock buying/sell. Unfortunately, he wrote the book when buying and selling stocks had an associated cost. NOW, buying and selling stocks can be done for free, and if done in a retirement account there is no capital gains tax. Thus, his whole basis of index funds being low cost (both because of low expense fee and not having to turnover and pay capital gains) is a bit obsolete, at least when compared to the current environment of buying and selling stocks in a retirement account. Yes, his whole thesis still stands up true to mutual funds (because they still have high expense ratios), so there is still some utility in reading the book. But if you read my review, you essentially read the book.

Mark Dice from YouTube recommended this book to his followers. I had coincidentally just transferred all my inherited investment accounts from a so-called "wealth advisor" who was EXTREMELY expensive, compared to being self directed, to Fidelity and was ready to immerse myself in the world of common stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and bonds to exceed my current profits. This book is an excellent starting point for those of us who wish to be self directed and would rather save thousands of dollars per year in excessive fees and see it transfer to larger profits in your portfolio(s). As I mentioned earlier, this book, imo, should be your starting point if you're interested in self directed stock market trading. John C. Bogle was a selfless man, eager to teach anyone interested in the do's and don't's of self directed index fund purchasing. This is more condensed version of Mr. Bogle's 'Common Sense on Mutual Funds New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor'. I would recommend reading the latter after reading 'The Little Book' first.

This book has helped me on my investment journey and help me start working towards my financial goals!

Concise, easy to read, exceptionally helpful investing introduction written by a famous developer of the Vanguard family of low cost funds. Read it BEFORE you start investing!

Excellent gift

John Bogle tells it like it is, and provides a practical approach to actually making money on the stock market, something that is intensely difficult to do. A hard book to read for those with rose colored glasses and ideas of turning rags to riches on a brokerage, but a necessary set of lessons for those looking for security and practicality. I find myself quoting "regression to the mean" nearly every time the topic of investing comes up. This book gives you a framework to contextualize the lunacy of the market and all the craziness of self-directed investing.

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Para una persona que no está tan familiarizada con la bolsa, el libro es claro en explicar los beneficios y costos de invertir en acciones vs invertir en un Index. Para mi fue un excelente libro que me dejó en claro todos los conceptos para invertir y me dio más confianza. Claro, es un libro que esta escrito para el mercado americano pero las ideas y conceptos se pueden extrapolar a los diferentes países.

This was a book requested by my nephew that was difficult to find so impressed that Amazon had it.