Champions of the small investor

Vanguard founder Jack Bogle and his diehard online investment community, the Bogleheads, were chosen as MONEY Heroes for their steadfast commitment to spreading investment advice that preaches simple, low-cost, diversified investing.

Preaching the gospel of simple investing
Preaching the gospel of simple investing

Jack Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group

Why he's a hero: Bogle, 82, has both preached the benefits of low-cost funds and indexing and made them widely available. He's a fierce critic of the financial industry's habit of putting its own interests ahead of its customers'.

His current passion: Raising an alarm over what he sees as the newest threat to prudent investing -- exchange-traded funds. First lauded for enabling people to hold broad stock indexes inexpensively, ETFs have morphed into vehicles for short-term speculation in narrow market slices. "ETFs are a prime example of Wall Street doing the wrong thing with a good idea," Bogle says. "The simple index fund has become a vehicle for lunatic trading."

Quote: "One of the most powerful rules in finance is reversion to the mean. If a sector of the market is outperforming, you can be sure that at some point it will collapse. The good stuff just can't continue."

Do you know a Money Hero? MONEY magazine is celebrating people, both famous and unsung, who have done extraordinary work to improve others' financial well-being. Nominate your Money Hero.



By Penelope Wang @Money - Last updated July 11 2012: 12:56 PM ET
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