The House that Bogle Built: How John Bogle and Vanguard Reinvented the Mutual Fund Industry

I don’t normally comment on books. And while I think the author injects his idealism a little bit in places, I was truly inspired by the message — so critical right now as the current administration eliminates fiduciary rules and Dodd Frank (albeit imperfect). We need business leaders with Bogle’s just capitalistic spirit.

Since I am a big fan of Jack Bogle I looked forward to reading this book. For the most part I enjoyed it. My one criticism was the inclusion of what I thought were personal opinions in the investment arena by the author particularly in Chapter 18.

A light book about someone who dare to make the mutual fund industry really mutual.The book struggles between a biography and a research of Vanguard history. Not been able to tip the scale to one or the other.

John Bogle's approach is a common sense approach to a better way of saving for your future. Young people should be required to read his stuff.

John (Jack) Bogle is rightfully a legend in investing, having founded the only true "mutual fund" company in existence and the only important person in the industry to fight to give the little investor a fair shake. Every investor should know his story whether or not they invest at Vanguard. Without Jack's influence the investment world would be a much worse place for investors due to high fees taken from investors. The entire industry has been forced to move towards giving investors a fairer shake, even if they can't match Vanguard.This book tells the story of Jack Bogle's life and the life of the company he founded. Jack is sometimes called St. Jack by his devoted followers, but while he is an extremely decent human being, like all great men he is fully human, warts and all. This book is an honest look at the man, not just a rehash of mythology surrounding the legend, and is better for it.Similarly, Vanguard is the most honest mutual fund company in the US, and likely the world, but has not reached perfection yet, and has its own warts. This book lays out an excellent and honest look at the company as well.The book is a fascinating read for anyone who simply likes a good story about an important and interesting person or event. It is much more for someone interested in investing. In fact, while not a "How to invest book", readers will come away with a better understanding of the investment business and will be better equipped to make sound investing decisions.The only thing that mars this book and the reason I did not give it five stars is that the author strays too far and too often from the point of the book: the story of Jack Bogle and Vanguard. He goes into lengthy essays on his own only semi-knowledgeable opinions and theories on how markets and investing work. For a guy who is just a journalist to write about Jack Bogle and insert his opinions on an equal footing is like some journalist writing about Einstein's theory of general relativity and inserting his own theories about physics. It would have been a better book to have stuck to the point.But overall the book has an excellent story to tell and it is mostly very well told.Read this book and you will understand why John (Jack) Bogle is a great American Hero to so many, and you will likely come out a better investor as well.

John Clifton Bogle. "Fortune" named him one of the four Investment Giants of the 20th century. In 2004, "Time" called him one of the world's 100 most powerful and influential people. Lewis Braham's excellent book, "The House that Bogle Built," details the extraordinary life and career of the man so often described as the conscience of the mutual fund industry. From the challenged Depression-era upbringing, through various family dislocations, to the formation of the Vanguard Group. It's all here, rendered in one well-written and highly accessible volume.Of the very accomplished it's often asked: "How exactly did you start?" The reader witnesses the young Bogle, fresh out of Princeton in search of a career, leveraging his senior thesis on the nascent mutual fund field to gain an interview with industry leader Walter L. Morgan. Founder of the Wellington Fund, Morgan circulates the thesis throughout the firm before offering Bogle the job. Of the candidate, Morgan remarks, "He knows more about the fund business than we do." Morgan then becomes the mentor and Bogle the heir apparent, ultimately landing him into the CEO's office. When a later acquisition splits management authority between Philadelphia and Boston, with tensions and disagreements mounting, Bogle deftly pulls off the coup of a lifetime: ultimately separating Wellington the fund from Wellington the management company. While following this fascinating progression, we witness the birth of the modern-day Vanguard Group. Through it all, the grit and determination of the man ("press on regardless" being a favorite exhortation) shines through.But why form Vanguard in the first place? The answer is important to and has an impact on every investor trying to fund a retirement through mutual funds. Fortunately, Bogle had these old-fashioned ideas about fiduciary roles, that money management should be more a profession and less a business. He felt the fund industry as constructed could only harm the investor. Management companies, hired to advise the funds, were for-profit entities, or were owned by giant conglomerates. They sought to maximize profits for their own shareholders. (Please think about that, the next time you compare fund firms for inclusion in your own portfolio.) To be successful, they captured every dollar possible through a variety of onerous fees and expense ratios. Further, management companies packed boards so as to move in lock-step with their wishes. Ultimate control rested with these companies over the funds that hired them. As Bogle saw it, servicing two masters introduced a fundamental conflict of interest. How could the management company perform a fiduciary role of maximizing profits to fund investors (lower fees equal higher returns) and at the same time satisfy its own profit-hungry shareholders? Bogle's vision for a new order was to introduce a truly mutualized structure. Investors, i.e., fund shareholders, would own the funds and, collectively, the management company. All mutual funds offered through this structure would be on an at-cost basis, with profit extraction by an external entity removed. Individual fund investors would finally be given a fair shake.One fascinating thing I learned from this book is the influence that the Enlightenment has had on Bogle. His emphasis on reason and pragmatism, along with a core belief that good works on earth represent the true measure of a life lived well, comports wholly with 18th century views. It's not at all hard visualizing him sitting comfortably with the likes of Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin discussing affairs of the day. In fact, it was intriguing to hear that some have favorably compared him to Franklin. To his lasting credit, Bogle helped spearhead the drive to build the National Constitution Center, the first museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution. And he served as its chairman for many years. Former Center president Rick Stengel said about Bogle, "He loved taking people to the sculpture room where the framers are and talking about how the statues are life-sized and how that worked, and he always put his hand on Madison's shoulder, who was the giant of the making of the Constitution but the shortest guy of the conventioneers."Forced to retire upon reaching Vanguard's mandatory retirement age, Bogle has spent his post-Vanguard days in true Enlightenment style: leading the cause of shareholder advocacy and vigorously promoting fundamental, nay revolutionary, industry change. Unswervingly, he fights on into his eighties, after serious heart ailments that would have felled persons of lesser spirit, to provide you and I that fair shake against the vested interests of Wall Street's insiders.A remarkably good read, and I have no misgivings rating it 5 stars!

if you are a die hard boglehead and INDEXER , This book is a must read to no the biography of saint jack bogle ,the only good man in a bad financial industry ,his struggle since invention of first index fund by him in 1976,when people called him bogle,s folly and indexing is un-American .TODAY SAME VANGUARD THE MUTUAL MUTUAL FUND ,AS ITS ACTUAL OWNER,S ARE THE SHAREHOLDER,S ,AS PER HIGH PRINCIPAL,S AND INTIGRITY OF JOHN C.BOGLE ,KEEPING INVESTORS INTREST FIRST,TODAY VANGUARD AND LOWEST COST FIRST INDEX FUND BECAME THE LARGEST FUND HOUSE IN THE WORLD ,JACK BOGLE CREATED A FINANCIAL REVOLUTION ,AS LOW COST MATTERS IN LONG TERM ,MAGIC OF COMPOUNDING ,HE WROTE 10 BOOKS INSPITE OF CARDIAC TRANSPLANT IN 1996.HIS LIFE STUGLE and charachtar counts. dr anil gupta md (new-York) cardiologist /boglehead.