VANGUARD TRIED TO RAISE $150M FOR THE FIRST INDEX FUND IN 1976 AND ONLY GOT $11.3M. IT NOW MANAGES ~$12 TRILLION. HERE’S HOW. It was the only company founder Jack Bogle was allowed to build after his partners fired him in 1974. A mutual fund is a pot of money from thousands of investors. The pot is its own legal entity with its own board, and that board hires an outside firm to actually run the money. Wellington was that outside firm. Bogle ran Wellington and chaired the funds' board. Two organizations, two seats. His partners vote him out of Wellington, but they have no say over the other seat. The next day he calls a meeting of the funds' board, the one that gets to choose who runs the money, and proposes firing Wellington. The board gave him a sliver of it. He could form a company owned by the funds, and that company could handle back office paperwork. No investing. No marketing. Tracking the S&P 500 meant picking no stocks, so it did not count as investment advice. He named it Vanguard and opened in May 1975. The 1976 launch only brought in $11.3M against a $150M target, not enough to buy all 500 names, so they bought 280 and hired a woman part time to manage it nights and weekends around her job at her husband's furniture store. 1977: The fund nearly dies. They merge an old $58M Wellington fund into it to keep it alive. 1982: Six years in, it finally clears $100M. Still short of what it asked for in 1976. 1988: Clears $1B. 2008: Active managers promise to protect clients in a crash, turns out, they did not. Vanguard's share of every new dollar entering the fund industry doubles. 2010: Passes Fidelity as the largest fund manager in the world. Bogle died in 2019 with an estate worth roughly $80M.

BIG: Vanguard acquired Altruist, a wealth management platform. Major bc they never do acqusitions, second one ever. Also it means they are now a custodian. Also shows they want to push their advisory reach (they are super cheap relative to norm, 5bps-25bps depending on minimum) albiet vast majority of their clients were existing Vgrd fund investors vs external new. Salim Ramji said advice is a "luxury" and he wants to expand it and make it accessbile to more people.

Here's how the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF $VEA has performed each full year since 2008: 2008: -40.65% 🔴 2009: +27.49% 🟢 2010: +8.35% 🟢 2011: -12.30% 🔴 2012: +18.56% 🟢 2013: +21.83% 🟢 2014: -5.98% 🔴 2015: -0.38% 🔴 2016: +2.67% 🟢 2017: +26.42% 🟢 2018: -14.75% 🔴 2019: +22.62% 🟢 2020: +9.74% 🟢 2021: +11.67% 🟢 2022: -15.36% 🔴 2023: +17.94% 🟢 2024: +3.16% 🟢 2025: +35.17% 🟢 So far in 2026: +14.87% 🟢

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