What do you think?
Rate this book
Enough by Bogle, John C.. (Wiley,2008) [Hardcover]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 2, 2024
Most of us (in the United States) are not professional investors. We only invest because we are forced to create our own pension plans. If you don’t love math, if you hate complexity and financial jargon, Jack Bogle is your light through the forest of confusion. In this book, he shares his ideas about how business ought to be conducted, specifically the business of financial services. In short, he favors a return to focus on the customer’s needs.
In business, we place too much emphasis on what can be counted and not nearly enough on trusting and being trusted.
I worked for big-named financial companies for 27 years. I wasn’t a big manager, but I was close enough to the action to validate Jack’s concerns. During all that time, my employers talked to me in a steady stream. Day after day, talking talking talking, and I don’t remember a single initiative to provide better service to our customers. Was our interest rate better than the competition? Our fees lower? Our customer service better? No one dared ask such blasphemous questions.
Upper management was interested in a better quarterly report, a higher stock price. They did not associate these with pleasing our customers in any way, but that’s a short-sighted approach, as Jack points out:
The distinction between the real market and the expectations market was perhaps best expressed by Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. In the real market of business, real companies spend real money and hire real people and invest in real capital equipment, to make real products and provide real services. If they compete with real skill, they earn real profits, out of which they pay real dividends. But to do so demands real strategy, real determination, and real capital expenditures, to say nothing of requiring real innovation and real foresight. In the expectations market, by contrast, prices are set, not by the realities of business just described, but by the expectations of investors. Crucially, these expectations are set by numbers, numbers that are to an important extent the product of what our managements want them to be, too easily managed, manipulated, and defined in multiple ways. What is more, we not only allow but seemingly encourage chief executives, whose real job is to build real corporate value, to bet in the expectations market, where their stock options are priced and exercised. . . . which is one reason why stock-option compensation creates huge distortions in our financial system.
He describes new, inscrutable financial products and who benefits from them:
In the financial sector . . . there exists a sharp dichotomy between the value of innovation to the financial institution itself and the value of innovation to its clients. Financial institutions . . . have a large incentive to favor the complex and costly over the simple and cheap, quite the opposite of what most investors need and ought to want.
Innovation in finance is designed largely to benefit those who create the complex new products, rather than those who own them.
Individual investors can still profit from this antagonistic environment, if they keep their investment plan simple, cut fees to an absolute minimum, diversify and hold for long-term returns. Clarity and simplicity must be fought for. Many companies that should help their customers in this regard actually defeat them. Jack cites Thomas Paine as he urges us on to victory:
The more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be disordered. —Thomas Paine
In business, we place too much emphasis on what can be counted and not nearly enough on trusting and being trusted.
I worked for big-named financial companies for 27 years. I wasn’t a big manager, but I was close enough to the action to validate Jack’s concerns. During all that time, my employers talked to me in a steady stream. Day after day, talking talking talking, and I don’t remember a single initiative to provide better service to our customers. Was our interest rate better than the competition? Our fees lower? Our customer service better? No one dared ask such blasphemous questions.
Upper management was interested in a better quarterly report, a higher stock price. They did not associate these with pleasing our customers in any way, but that’s a short-sighted approach, as Jack points out:
The distinction between the real market and the expectations market was perhaps best expressed by Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. In the real market of business, real companies spend real money and hire real people and invest in real capital equipment, to make real products and provide real services. If they compete with real skill, they earn real profits, out of which they pay real dividends. But to do so demands real strategy, real determination, and real capital expenditures, to say nothing of requiring real innovation and real foresight. In the expectations market, by contrast, prices are set, not by the realities of business just described, but by the expectations of investors. Crucially, these expectations are set by numbers, numbers that are to an important extent the product of what our managements want them to be, too easily managed, manipulated, and defined in multiple ways. What is more, we not only allow but seemingly encourage chief executives, whose real job is to build real corporate value, to bet in the expectations market, where their stock options are priced and exercised. . . . which is one reason why stock-option compensation creates huge distortions in our financial system.
He describes new, inscrutable financial products and who benefits from them:
In the financial sector . . . there exists a sharp dichotomy between the value of innovation to the financial institution itself and the value of innovation to its clients. Financial institutions . . . have a large incentive to favor the complex and costly over the simple and cheap, quite the opposite of what most investors need and ought to want.
Innovation in finance is designed largely to benefit those who create the complex new products, rather than those who own them.
Individual investors can still profit from this antagonistic environment, if they keep their investment plan simple, cut fees to an absolute minimum, diversify and hold for long-term returns. Clarity and simplicity must be fought for. Many companies that should help their customers in this regard actually defeat them. Jack cites Thomas Paine as he urges us on to victory:
The more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be disordered. —Thomas Paine
January 21, 2024
It’s a good book to understand how the financial system works. Tbf I found most of this messages today in social networks, there’s quite a lot of influencers exposing all of these, at least in the dividend gang. Even with that the book is written with a lot of common sense and will encourage new investors to double think about hiring actively managed funds. Tldr; the financial system provides nothing to society, it’s companies and professionals who deliver value, there’s no need to give them even more money, if you need to invest own stocks for three long term or hold an indexed fund.
January 30, 2025
I love Bogle, but this book didn't seem to contain too much meaning outside of the title, which is a very thought-provoking concept, and the chapter titled, "Too Much Management, Not Enough Leadership" where he walks through the important distinctions between the two. Aside from that it's not a bad book, but there are much better in the areas of money, business, and life.
December 14, 2023
Exposes the faults in the financial systems that require people to trade rather than to invest. All the elements of the equation, and how he thinks it could be fixed. It won't be though.. so it's good to keep in mind for anyone investing on the long term.
September 7, 2025
This wonderful, short treatise, recommended by a rector in her sermon is such an important statement of how to think about finances and morality. It is full of great stories, accessible and clear. Every adult who is interested in living a life of virtue should read it. It’s inspiring and timely.
November 29, 2023
Second time reading this and find lots of nuggets of information stored throughout the chapters. Reminder to not chase money but remember what you’re saving for and stop when you have enough.
July 19, 2024
Clear critique of our investment, financial and government sectors that led to the 2008 financial crash and are still problematic. Wonderful section on character!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews