Index Funds Made Simple: Your Step-by-Step Plan to Low-Cost, Long-Term Wealth

Janice Russ is a personal finance writer and editor who has spent more than fifteen years helping ordinary investors build wealth the unglamorous way: through low-cost index funds, automatic contributions, and a long attention span. Her work has appeared in national personal finance and business publications, and she is a trusted voice for readers who want practical answers without the jargon.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Russ spent a decade as a financial analyst in the investment industry. Her own investing life began in her early twenties with the classic beginner mistakes — high-fee actively managed funds, chasing hot sectors, and a panicked sale during her first bear market. The lessons from those years became the foundation of her investing philosophy and of this book: most investors are better served by owning broad markets cheaply than by trying to beat them. Today her portfolio is built almost entirely from total market and international index funds, with bonds increasing as she ages. She wrote *Index Funds Made Simple* to give new investors the step-by-step plan she wishes she had been handed on day one.

Russ is known for a no-nonsense, encouraging tone and one firm rule: she never predicts markets. When she is not writing, she volunteers as a financial literacy instructor with a local nonprofit, publishes a monthly newsletter for new investors, and — in her own words — "joyfully ignores her portfolio until its annual rebalance date." She lives in the Pacific Northwest with