When people think about investing, they often imagine trying to find the right stock. What's that one company that will outperform all the others? But that approach can often feel a lot like searching for a needle in a haystack. You might find it. You might not. John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, offered a different idea. He said, "Don't look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack." And that is what indexing is all about.

An index fund is a way to buy that haystack by investing in many companies at once, instead of trying to pick individual stocks. It does this by tracking an index, like the S&P 500, which represents the performance of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the US. You can also invest in indexes that track other markets. By investing in this way, you're helping to spread out or diversify risk. You're not relying on the growth of a single company. You're utilizing the strength of an entire index.

Because indexing is not about stock picking or frequent trading, they often cost less to manage. This helps keep costs low. And low costs are key for investment growth. And that's the idea behind indexing. Own the haystack and stay focused on the long term.

Investing can often feel overwhelming, full of decisions about what to buy, how much to pay, and when to act. But what if it didn't have to be so complicated? That's what makes indexing so appealing to so many investors.

Indexing starts with keeping costs low. Index funds don't rely on stock-picking or frequent trading by portfolio managers. That helps keep expenses low. And over the long term, that means more of an opportunity to compound over time.

Diversification is another benefit. With a single index fund you can own hundreds or even thousands of companies at once. That spreads out the risk instead of betting on just a few stocks.

Indexing is also designed to be easy to understand and transparent. Index funds follow clear, rules-based benchmarks. But what is a benchmark? It's the index a fund is built to track, for example, the S&P 500. This benchmark represents the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the US. Because the goal of indexing is to match the market rather than to beat it, index funds give investors a consistent way to participate in long-term market growth.

With clear objectives and a simple structure, indexing helps you understand exactly what you're buying - diversified investing at a low cost.

You might be wondering what happens behind the scenes when you invest in an index fund. My job is to keep the fund lined up with its benchmark, and ensure costs remain low. So what does that really mean?

It means we start with the benchmark; the index the fund is designed to track, like the S&P 500, for example. Then, we build the fund to look like the benchmark and hold the same companies at the same weights or proportions as the index. Our benchmark stays consistent most of the time, but it could change if a new company comes to the market, or one company buys another.

As a portfolio manager, my job is to make sure that no matter what happens, our funds continue to look like their benchmarks. We follow the markets, not the hype. Even when the benchmark stays the same, the funds continue to change as clients move money in and out.

I balance all of these things on behalf of our investors. Indexing takes discipline: tracking the benchmark, monitoring cash flows, and keeping everything aligned carefully and efficiently.

For more than 50 years, index funds have helped transform investing, making it easier and more affordable to build a diversified portfolio. That's why investors use index funds, to help achieve various goals, like retirement, or college savings.

You can choose from a range of index funds designed to track different parts of the market. This can help you build a portfolio that reflects your needs, while still benefiting from diversification and low costs.

Choosing an index fund typically starts when you decide which part of the market you want to track. From there, you can look at the fund's objective, which explains what it's designed to do.

Next, don't forget to review the index fund's costs since lower expenses can help you keep more money invested over time.

And finally, index funds are used as part of a broader portfolio, sometimes on their own, sometimes alongside other investments. For many investors, this approach offers a simple, disciplined way to participate in the market over the long term.