[.ca] Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the ... (ISBN 0440506824)

Sound advice on mutual funds:
I read this book when it first came out ten years ago at the beginning of the bull market. At the time the book had mixed reviews. One of Bogle's warning, and probably the best advice, is to watch out for funds that charge high fees and to study all the fees charged in all funds. I remember one reviewer feeling that Bogle was overreacting to the fees that funds charged and that fund managers are really on our side. Fast-forward to today, we have the mutual fund scandal and we learn that mutual fund managers aren't really working on our best interests. Though reading this book can't help you spot all the bad apples ( the Janus family has alot of no-load funds and it was implicated in the scandal) it can help you be aware and thus be more weary. In a nutshell, this book is comprehensive,honest and prescient. John Bogle is the conscience of the mutual fund industry.

First & Final mutual fund book:
My first and final book on mutual funds. I've read several others, but keep returning to this one. The end of chapter summaries are invaluable. It is a tougher read than most and Mutual Funds for Dummies ins easier and in the same vein.

A must-read book for speculators and traders:
This "Definitive Book on Mutual Funds" demonstrates effectively with facts and statistics that common stocks are hugely superior to long-term bonds and cash reserves. (I personally think income-producing real estate is superior to common stocks, but there are no national statistics to prove that.) How should we invest in common stocks? Mr. Bogle has the answer for most of us, it is indexed mutual funds (S & P 500, Russell 2000, etc.). This book should be reread if you start getting impatient and begin to feel that your stock-picking ability is superior to the stock market indices. How readers will feel about Mr. Bogle's book, say, 10 to 20 years from now, depends upon what happens to the stock market in the future. If the stock market has a disastrous crash (index funds do not provide immunity from crashes) along the way, and 15 years from now it is, say, at 10,000, people will say, "Boy, was I stupid to believe Mr. Bogle, and put so much into the stock market." The bottom line advice of this excellent book is that the stock market is a good bet, so obviously if the market does not cooperate, the credibility of this scholarly work will suffer. 20/20 hindsight will condemn even the best books. I am betting all my stock market investments, mostly indexed mutual funds (most of my money, however, is in real estate), that there won't be a disaster and the market will be significantly higher. The history that Mr. Bogle provides in this book shows that this is a reasonable bet.

A Must-Read for Mutual Fund Investors!:
Mr. Bogle's years of experience, outlook on investing and emphasis on how the Mutual Fund industry has forgotten it's purpose proved extremely insightful. His genuine concern for the individual investor is clearly evidident, especially with regard to the impact Fund Cost's and Fee's have on actual (after-tax) returns. He re-emphasises over and over throughout the book how the Mutual Fund industry has become more of a marketing process, with the winners being the fund managers and the losers being the individual investors. Money spent on advertising and marketing, which has proven to provide no increase on returns, is money lost by investors with no tangible value. His ability to clearly convey the proven concept of how Index Funds, with minimal fund turn-over, low cost management fee's and an objective of meeting as opposed to beating the market has made me a true believer in Indexing. I would sincerly like to thank Mr. Bogle for committing himself and his life to investing excellence, he is truly the "VanGuard" for the individual investor!

A Classic Bore:
Great book, maybe. But is it ever boring. Mutual Funds excite me (I'm a CPA), but not this book.