The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns By John C. Bogle

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is the classic guide to getting smart about the market. Legendary mutual fund pioneer John C. Bogle reveals his key to getting more out of investing: low-cost index funds. Bogle describes the simplest and most effective investment strategy for building wealth over the long term: buy and hold, at very low cost, a mutual fund that tracks a broad stock market Index such as the S&P 500.

The expectations market is about speculation. The real market is about investing. The stock market, then, is a giant distraction to the business of investing.
The message is clear: In the long run, stock returns depend almost entirely on the reality of the investment returns earned by our corporations.
Where returns are concerned, time is your friend. But where costs are concerned, time is your enemy.