A power-packed explanation of why outperforming the market is an investor illusion. Instead, the man who has been called the conscience of the investment industry recommends a simple, time-tested investment strategy--indexing--that can deliver the greatest return to the greatest number of investors. Why? Investing is a zero sum game where transaction costs, taxes, poor investment diversification, and poor market-timing (an affliction for most investors) hurts your portfolio more than it helps. Indexing eliminates that hurt. Bottom-line, if you can't be an index, why not invest in one. And you'll be all the happier and richer for it.

John C. Bogle is Founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. He created Vanguard in 1974 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 1996 and Senior Chairman until 2000. The Vanguard Group is one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world, with current assets totaling about $742 billion. Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the largest fund in the group, was founded by Mr. Bogle in 1975.