Bogleheads® investing start-up kit

Welcome to the Bogleheads' Investor Start-Up Kit!

This kit is designed to help you begin or improve your investing journey. The Boglehead investing principles are distilled in the table listing to the right. These principles are more fully explained in Bogleheads Investment Philosophy. We urge you to begin your reading with this page.

The additional pages in this kit examine in greater depth the precepts laid out in the Bogleheads Investment Philosophy page.

If you have questions regarding investing, just ask in the Bogleheads' forum. No question is too simple. Please refer to the following guides for asking investment planning questions;


 * Laura’s tips on posting your portfolio and asking related questions
 * Laura’s investment planning overview

Introduction to Investing
For an examination of sound principles of investing start with our Bogleheads Investment Philosophy page.


 * Bogleheads Investment Philosophy
 * Risk

Asset Classes
Different categories of investments, are sometimes described as asset classes. The major ones are stocks, bonds, and cash or cash equivalents. The following pages provide introductions to cash investments; nominal and inflation-indexed bonds; and US and international stocks. Additional information on asset classes, including alternative asset classes can be found in the wiki category Asset Classes.


 * Money Markets
 * Bond Basics
 * Treasury Inflation Protected Securities
 * Stock Basics
 * Domestic/International

Implementing an Investment Plan
As illustrated in our Bogleheads Investment Philosophy page, we advocate allocating our investment capital in well-diversified, low-cost mutual funds. The following pages examine mutual fund costs; provide examples of broadly diversified investment portfolios; and explain portfolio management techniques that help mitigate investment risk and reduce taxes. All of these inputs culminate in the seminal investment roadmap and guide for our investment plan, the Investment Policy Statement.


 * Mutual Funds and Fees
 * Mutual Funds: Additional Costs
 * Indexing
 * Vanguard Target Retirement Funds
 * Lazy Portfolios
 * Principles of Tax-Efficient Fund Placement
 * Rebalancing
 * Tax Loss Harvesting
 * Investment Policy Statement