John Bogle Net Worth and salary: John Bogle was an American businessman and executive who had a net worth of $80 million at the time of his death in 2019. That net worth might be surprising given that Vanguard managed some $5 trillion, but in a 2012 interview Bogle confirmed to the New York Times that he wasn't a billionaire, nor a hundred-millionaire and that his net worth was in the "double digit millions". Had he decided to run Vanguard as a more traditional mutual or hedge fund, he surely could have been worth many many billions of dollars. However Bogle decided he wanted his investment managers to work more to help customers as opposed to charging big management fees or fees on gains that took away from customers. He is arguably a hero to millions of everyday working investors.
John Bogle was born May 8, 1929 in Montclair, New Jersey. He was best known as the founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group. He is also known for his 1999 book Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor, which became a bestseller and is considered a classic. After graduating from Princeton University magna cum laude in 1951 with a degree in Economis, Bogle was hired by Wellington Management Company. He eventually rose to President and then CEO of the company. Bogle was actually fired from Wellington in 1974. After getting fired, he put together a new fund which he called Vanguard. Today The Vanguard Group is the largest mutual fund organization in the world with just over $5 trillion in assets under management.. Headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Vanguard is made up of more than 160 mutual funds. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the largest fund in the group, was founded by Mr. Bogle in 1975. It was the first index mutual fund. Index funds were Bogle's revolution. It was his theory that an average investor would do far better owning a small piece of the entire market as opposed to paying a mutual fund manager endless fees to frequently perform WORSE than the market.
In 1997, he was named one of the "Financial Leaders of the 20th Century" in Leadership in Financial Services (Macmillan Press Ltd., 1997). In 1999, FORTUNE designated him as one of the investment industry's four "Giants of the 20th Century." In the same year, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for "distinguished achievement in the nation's service." He has received many awards since. In 1997, Bogle was appointed by then-U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt to serve on the Independence Standards Board. He has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Princeton University, University of Delaware, University of Rochester, New School University, Susquehanna University, Eastern University, Widener University, Albright College, Pennsylvania State University, Drexel University, Immaculata University, Georgetown University, Trinity College and Villanova University. In 2004, TIME magazine named Mr. Bogle one of the world's 100 most powerful and influential people and Institutional Investor presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. John Bogle died on January 16, 2019 at the age of 89.
