The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Puntos clave

• Los inversores obtienen el retorno del mercado menos costos: quien gasta menos, gana
• Compra todo el mercado con un fondo indexado barato en vez de buscar ganadores
• Casi ningún fondo activo supera al índice a largo plazo y los líderes casi nunca repiten
• Céntrate en las ganancias y dividendos de la empresa; ignora el humor del mercado
• Hazlo simple: reparte entre acciones y bonos, rebalancea poco y mantén décadas

Dentro de este bit

1. Tenlo todo, no pagues casi nada

   John C. Bogle founded Vanguard and launched the first index fund for ordinary investors in 1976, and this little book is his case in plain language.

2. La implacable aritmética de los costos

   Bogle's foundation is a piece of arithmetic no marketing can escape. Before costs, the average rupee invested in the market earns exactly the market return, because the market is the sum of all its investors.

3. Buy the whole haystack

   Rather than searching for the few stocks or fund managers that will beat the market, Bogle says to own all of them through a broad, low-cost index fund. His evidence is that most actively managed funds trail their benchmark over a decade or more, that the ones which win rarely keep winning, and that many of the losers quietly disappear, making the survivors look better than they were.

4. Especular no es invertir

   Bogle draws a line between the return a business earns, which is dividends plus earnings growth, and the return the market adds or subtracts through changes in how much investors will pay per rupee of earnings. Over a decade, the first is reliable and the second is noise; over a century, the second averages out to almost nothing.

5. Hazlo simple, piensa a largo plazo

   Bogle's practical advice is almost boring, which he takes as a compliment. Hold a broad equity index fund and, as you age or your nerves require, a broad bond index fund; a common rule of thumb puts roughly your age in percent into bonds, adjusted for your situation.

6. Ponlo en práctica

   This week, look up the expense ratio of every fund you hold and write the numbers side by side; anything above 1% deserves a hard question. Check what share of your portfolio sits in broad, low-cost index funds and consider sending new SIP money there first.