It turns out that boring is better in the stock market, and the “populist revolution” led by Vanguard Group founder Jack Bogle against the entrenched investing worldview over the past 40 years is finally starting to overturn the traditional wisdom, according to a new NPR feature.

“We live in this mythical world where we kind of believe the American way is if you try harder, you will do better — that if you pay a professional to do something, it will pay off,” Bogle said in the article. “And these things are true — except in investing!”

Instead, Bogle explains how an average 7 percent return on owning the whole of the stock market is whittled by 2.5 percent for inflation, 2 percent for mutual fund managers and another 1 percent for an investment advisor.

“Cost turns out to be everything,” he said. “It’s just what I’ve often called the ‘relentless rules of humble arithmetic.'”

And more and more investors now agree; index funds now account for 34 percent of the mutual fund market.

“The $3.2 trillion that Vanguard manages has come from people in all walks of life who share one thing: They’ve looked at the math and concluded they can make more money by following Bogle’s lead — a lot more money,” the article explained.

Index investing doesn’t produce much hype or excitement, but it generates results.

“It is boring!” Bogle said. “It is the most boring investment strategy ever invented in the history of time. … (But) owning the stock market is the way. It’s the way to do it.”

Read more about Bogle’s index investing revolution on NPR here and listen to its interview with him below: