To: Veterans and Principals
Date: February 10, 2015
RE: Recognition for Vanguard
I’m enclosing several articles about Vanguard that may be of interest. It’s always nice that our focus on doing the right thing for our clients—those down-to-earth, honest-to-God human beings, each with their own hopes, dreams, and financial goals—continues to be received so favorably by the media.
- “Where is John C. Bogle’s Presidential Medal of Freedom?” Forbes, February 9, 2015. This lovely piece by author and financial adviser Phil DeMuth suggests that I should be awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor. I am deeply touched by this kind gesture.
- “ ‘Robo investing’ on the fruit and nut fringe,” Financial Times, February 2, 2015. Stephen Foley does a nice job of presenting my views on investing in ETFs. He ends the story with a quote from me, “exchange-traded funds are fine, just so long as you don’t trade them.”
- “The Best (and Worst) Investments They Ever Made,” The Wall Street Journal, December 27-28, 2014. A wide range of responses from several prominent figures in finance and beyond on investment lessons learned—sometimes the hard way. Included in this group are Nobel Laureates William Sharpe and Eugene Fama, director of CFA Institute Research Foundation Laurence Siegel, and Princeton University professor and former Vanguard director Burton Malkiel.
- “Bogle: How to boost investment returns in 2015,” CNBC.com, January 15, 2015. Journalist Elizabeth MacBride visited me in my office for this story about the importance of keeping the costs of investing down and making sure you compare your investments to the proper benchmark.
- “The stock market seems to be ignoring the big risks,” Finanz und Wirtschaft, February 3rd, 2015. I did this interview for a Switzerland-based financial magazine. Thankfully, they were kind enough to translate it into English for us!
- “Nobody ‘knows’ the market:John Bogle,” MarketWatch.com, February 5, 2015. This short web article criticizes the financial media’s tendency to oversimplify complex investing topics and stresses the importance of sticking with a long-term asset allocation.
- “Active Managers Losing Ground Can Thank John Bogle,” Institutional Investor, January 27, 2015. A brief interview that highlights my views on the growth of—and changes in—indexing, such as the rise of ETFs and so-called “Smart Beta” funds.
- “Jack Bogle’s Index Investing Is Good Enough for Warren Buffett,” Motley Fool, November 12, 2014. This article highlights Warren Buffett’s instruction in his will that 90% of the assets in his estate should be allocated to Vanguard 500 Index Fund.
- “Mutual Funds: Why Shareholders Still Love Them,” Investor’s Business Daily, November 28, 2014. Despite all of the headlines touting ETFs in the financial press recently, good-old-fashioned mutual funds still deserve a place in investors’ portfolios, according to journalist Paul Katzeff.
- “Legends of Indexing: John Bogle,” Journal of Indexes, November/ December 2014. The final issue of the Journal of Indexes. While I’m sorry to see this publication fall by the wayside, it went out with a bang. There is an extended interview with me, as well as 13 other “legends” who helped bring indexing to investors.
Best, always,
John C. Bogle