Happy birthday! Vanguard 500 Index Fund turns 50

Happy 50th birthday Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the first ever index mutual fund which revolutionized how Americans invest.

The Vanguard 500 Index Fund, a staple in millions of portfolios, began as First Index Investment Trust on Aug. 31, 1976. The first publicly available fund tracking the S&P 500 index was the brainchild of the late John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group. At the time, an index mutual fund was considered an unconventional idea but now, it's ubiquitous and has fundamentally changed investing.

In its half century, the index fund expanded investor access to a broad cross-section of the U.S. stock market, dramatically lowered costs and helped millions of Americans build long-term wealth. All classes of the Vanguard 500 Index hold $1.67 trillion in assets, according to research and data provider Morningstar. Index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds comprise 50% more assets than actively managed U.S. stock funds, the Investment Company Institute said.

"Fifty years ago, indexing challenged a deeply held assumption — that investors had to beat the market using high-cost active funds to achieve better investment outcomes," said Vanguard President and Chief Investment Officer Greg Davis in a release. "By making broad market exposure simple, accessible, and low…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/money/