Jun 16, 2023

NGPF Podcast (From the Archive): Eric Balchunas describes Jack Bogle's Legacy

A couple of weeks ago, Todd Schlanger (Senior Investment Strategist at Vanguard) briefly mentioned Jack Bogle on the NGPF Podcast. This week we have pulled from the podcast archives our episode with Eric Balchunas, the author of The Bogle Effect, who goes into his legacy.

Eric Balchunas got to know Jack Bogle through interviews with him and conversations with more than 50 people who worked with him over the years. The result is his new book, The Bogle Effect, where Eric chronicles the serendipity that marked Jack Bogle's career, from his ouster at Wellington to the creative approach he took to starting Vanguard and the unique way he structured it (as a mutual company). If you invest in mutual funds, you have Jack Bogle to thank for driving down the costs of the industry and for popularizing the lowest cost mutual fund of them all, the index fund. Eric also shares his favorite personal finance resources and important investing lessons he would share with high school students. Enjoy! 

Details:

  • 0:00~1:42 Introduction
  • 1:42~5:15 Early money lessons
  • 5:15~10:19 Career at Bloomberg
  • 10:19~12:04 Sitting close to Michael Bloomberg
  • 12:04~15:14 Passive versus active management
  • 15:14~20:41 What’s an ETF?
  • 20:41~30:21 Bogle’s backstory
  • 30:21~30:42 A word from NGPF
  • 30:42~36:37 The first index fund 
  • 36:37~39:21 Total cost saved through low-cost funds 
  • 39:21~45:23 Bogle’s philosophies
  • 45:23~48:10 The end goal for Bogle
  • 48:10~54:54 Indexing and ESGs
  • 54:54~58:06 Robo-advisors and the future of wealth management
  • 58:06~1:00:50 Favorite resources 
  • 1:00:50~1:06:00 Important investing lessons and meme stocks 
  • 1:06:00~1:09:20 The Bogle legacy
  • 1:09:20~1:10:15 Conclusion

Resources:

Quotes:

  • “In my book, I take great pains to explain that indexing isn’t really the thing. The thing is low cost. And that is ultimately what would not have happened without Bogle and Vanguard’s mutual ownership structure.”

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Looking for more engaging conversations with thought leaders in personal finance? NGPF Podcast has more than 300 episodes! 

 

About the Author

Ren Makino

Ren started interning at NGPF in 2014, and worked part-time through high school and college. With his knowledge growing alongside NGPF, he joined the team to work full-time after graduating from college in 2020. He is also the producer of the NGPF podcast. During his free time, he likes to try out coffees from different roasters across the world.

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