Topic
Passive Investing
Boring, low-cost, evidence-based. The investing approach that beats most professionals over any horizon longer than ten years.
Passive investing is the strategy of owning the whole market through a low-cost index tracker and getting on with your life. It works for two compounding reasons: fees compound (a 0.10% fund beats a 0.85% fund by roughly 25% over thirty years, purely on cost) and behaviour compounds (a one-fund portfolio invites less tinkering, and less tinkering produces better returns). The SPIVA reports have shown this consistently for two decades.
These articles cover the UK-specific implementation. Passive Investing in the UK is the core piece on why active funds usually lose. Bogleheads UK covers Jack Bogle's underlying philosophy. Cheapest UK Index Funds 2026 compares total cost of ownership across the major UCITS-compliant trackers. Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is the closest thing to a UK Boglehead canon, and worth a read before any actual capital decisions.
6 articles
Passive Investing in the UK: Why Active Funds Lose
Your active fund loses to the index 8 times out of 10 over a decade. The 0.85% fee gap quietly eats an entire retirement portfolio over a career. The sales floor never mentions it.
Best UCITS ETFs for UK Investors 2026: 10 Funds Compared
Five UCITS tickers cover almost everything a UK investor will ever need. Most portfolios hold three times that many funds doing the same job at five times the cost.
Bogleheads UK: John Bogle's Investing Philosophy Explained
Bogle didn't invent indexing. He built the first one cheap enough to actually work for ordinary investors. The cost gap on £100k compounds to £180k over 30 years. That's the whole argument.
Cheapest UK Index Funds 2026: Total Cost of Ownership
Vanguard has been the default UK tracker for a decade. The new ranking has them in second place, and the headline fee number is not the one that decided it.
Smarter Investing by Tim Hale: A UK Review
Most UK risk-tolerance quizzes are theatre. Hale's personal risk profile combines three things they all miss into one equity/bond split that survives an actual crash.
Winning the Loser's Game Review: Passive Wins
Charles Ellis argued investing is not a game you win by playing better. It is a game you win by making fewer mistakes than the other side. The UK active industry is the other side.