Denton County Living Well Magazine September/October 2016 | Page 21

The Intelligent Investor

“Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It’s cheaper!” — John C. Bogle

What Experts Say About “Index Funds”

Jack Bogle: “Of the 355 equity funds in 1970, fully 233 of those funds have gone out of business. Only 24 outpaced
the market by more than 1% a year. These are terrible odds.” -- “I favor the all-market index fund as the best choice
for most investors.”
Christine Benz, Morningstar Director of Personal Finance: “By buying total-market index funds--one for U.S. stocks,
one for foreign stocks, and one for bonds--investors can gain exposure to a huge swath of securities in three highly
economical packages.”
Bill Bernstein, author & financial adviser: “Indexing virtually guarantees you superior performance.”
Peter L Bernstein, author of 10 financial books: “I own no actively managed funds. They are all index funds because
I’m a skeptic about active management.”
Warren Buffet, famed investor: “A low-cost index fund is the most sensible equity investment for the great majority of
investors. My mentor, Ben Graham, took this position many years ago, and everything I have seen since convinces
me of its truth.”
Scott Burns, syndicated columnist: “Searching through a list of 234 domestic equity funds that have survived for 20
years, only 31 did better than the Vanguard 500 Index. That means the odds are really, really poor that any of us will
do better than a low-cost broad index fund.”
Jonathan Clements, author and former Wall Street Journal Columnist: “Four years ago I was a fan of index funds.
Today I am a true believer.”
James Dahle, author of The White Coat Investor: “Index funds have repeatedly and continuously outperformed the
vast majority of the actively managed mutual funds in their asset class over the long term.”
Charles Ellis, author of “Winning the Loser’s Game”: “The best plan for most of us, is to commit to buying some
index funds and do nothing else.”
Eugene Fama, Nobel Laureate: “The question is, ‘When is active management good?’ The answer is ‘never.’”
Benjamin Graham, famed author, teacher and investor: “Index funds save on management and marketing expenses, reduce transaction costs, defer capital-gain, and control risk--and in the process, beat the vast majority of
actively manage mutual funds.”
Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve: “Once you start to try and trade the market, I don’t care
how good you are, how smart you are, you will not beat an index fund.”
Peter Lynch, former manager of the Magellan Fund: “The statistical evidence proving that stock index funds outperform between 80% and 90% of actively managed equity funds is so overwhelming that it takes enormously expensive advertising campaigns to obscure the truth from investors.”
Rex Sinquefield, mutual fund researcher: “The only consistent superior performer is the market itself and the only
way to capture the superior consistency is to invest in a properly diversified portfolio of index funds.”

DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

19