Building a Boglehead Portfolio in India

The Boglehead philosophy — named after Vanguard founder Jack Bogle — is the most evidence-backed approach to personal investing ever documented. It requires almost no time, zero market-timing skill, and outperforms the overwhelming majority of professional fund managers over any 10+ year horizon.

The three principles

• Invest broadly. Buy the whole market, not individual stocks or thematic funds.

• Keep costs ruthlessly low. Every rupee in fees is a rupee compounding against you.

• Stay the course. Market crashes are inevitable. The only losing move is selling in fear.

The Indian Boglehead portfolio

A simple three-fund portfolio covers the Indian market comprehensively:

• NIFTY 500 Index Fund (or NIFTY 50 + Midcap 150) — core Indian equity exposure

• International Index Fund (Motilal Oswal NASDAQ 100 or DSP World Index) — global diversification

• Short-term Debt Fund or PPF — your stability layer

Implementation step by step

Open a direct mutual fund account on Zerodha Coin, MFU, or your preferred platform. Set up three SIPs on the same day as your salary credit. Do not check your portfolio more than once a quarter.

What you give up

You give up the story. You cannot tell people you are investing in the "AI of healthcare" or "next Reliance." Your portfolio is boring. That boredom is the strategy.

“The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.”

— Carl von Clausewitz (as quoted by Bogle)