How index funds work: why doing nothing beats most experts

In 1976, Wall Street called the first index fund for ordinary savers "Bogle's folly". It picked nothing and simply bought the whole list. Today, over 20 years, about nine in ten funds that pick large American companies end up behind that kind of fund. Two new teachers make a 30-year bet in their staff room: one goes with a star fund manager, the other with the fund that picks nothing. On the way, you learn what an index fund and the S&P 500 are, why most active funds fall behind, how compound interest works, what a 1% fee really costs, and how Warren Buffett's $1 million bet ended.