Happy 35th Birthday Index Funds

Image via WikipediaIt was 35 years ago that John Bogle and the Vanguard Group launched the First Index Investment Trust that tracked the popular S&P 500 index. The fund name was changed to the Vanguard 500 in the 1980s. Bogle and his company has forever changed the investing landscape.

At the time John Bogle never thought how his idea would affect the way millions of people would invest. As a manager of mutual funds he wanted to find a way to make investing easy for the common man. At the time and even today mutual fund investing still means paying high management fees. He felt there could be a better way. His idea of a mutual fund that tracked an index and would always do as good as the market was a novel idea. It was simple and easy, without a lot of hassle. To make a good idea better he pioneered low management fees so the investor would benefit and not the broker salesman.

Bogle thought it was a travesty for the industry to make a fortune in management fees and wanted those fees to stay in the pockets of investors. He knew that even a small amount of reduced management fees kept in the investors account meant for higher returns.

We need to thank John Bogle and company for giving us the index mutual fund and the beginning of passive investing. Over the years the the inexpensive management fees has kept billions in the accounts of investors where it belongs. Thank you John Bogle!

More reading about John Bogle and Index Funds:

Wall Street Journal article titled How the Index Fund Was Born

The First Index Mutual Fund: A History of Vanguard Index Trust and the Vanguard Index Strategy.

The Power of Passive Investing