Boston,1976: 1st index fund (avoid the active mutual fund scam!)

Описание: The first index fund aimed at individual investors was the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, launched on August 31, 1976. It tracked the performance of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States. This is an important milestone in financial history, because it allowed individual investors the opportunity to invest passively, and buy the whole market, instead of attempting to beat the market by actively attempting to pick better-performing stocks. Before then, individual investors interested in diversifying were served active mutual funds, which under-performed on average, and charged a lot. Has the world changed since? Today, mutual funds still underperform on average, and still charge more than passive funds! Active fund sellers always win: they get paid every year, regardless of performance. And you, the buyer of active funds, are almost guaranteed to lose!

This video explains what index funds are, detailing how they track a basket of stocks to match the performance of a market index. It highlights the history of index funds, mentioning the Vanguard 500 Index Fund and its role in making investing easier for everyone. For those new to the world of personal finance, understanding index funds explained is a vital step in smart investing.

0:00 Intro
1:16 The Context: Investing Actively until the 1970s
2:09 The Dismal Performance of Mutual Funds
3:46 What Are Individuals Supposed to Do?
4:19 The World’s 1st Index Fund for Individuals
5:25 The Rest is History
6:32 Our Sources
6:34 Takeaways for You