If you do a Google search for financial newsletters, you’ll get an endless number of results. How do you choose one that is reliable without paying first?
You could ask around or sign up for a free trial when available. Or you can read our review of several different popular investment newsletters that we believe are reliable and produce results.
Prices for the investment newsletters and subscriptions listed are current as of writing. But subscription costs and promos can change often. Be sure to check each service's website for the latest prices and deals.
The Motley Fool
Who is it for? Investors who want specific stock picks with thorough research. You'll also gain access to the huge Motley Fool message board where you can ask investment and personal finance questions and engage with other Fool members.
The Stock Advisor is one of its most popular subscriptions and probably a good place to start if you're new to The Motley Fool. It typically costs $199/yr but we're currently able to offer our readers a subscription for just $99 for the first year. Sign up here >>
Kiplinger
Who is it for? Those who are looking for a broad personal finance magazine that offers general personal finance reading and investing tips.
Kiplinger is available in print, digital, and print + digital. They all cost the same, making the print + digital subscription the best value, assuming you have an affinity for print.
Subscriptions are $29.95 for 12 issues and $39.90 for 24 issues. Both are significant savings off the cover price of the magazine.
Morningstar
Who is it for? Investing nerds who love deep, hands-on research with a focus on stocks, ETFs, and funds.
Morningstar provides the investor with all the research tools. But it is up to the investor to execute and understand what they are looking for. For that reason, it might not be the best starting point for new investors. However, experienced investors should be able to complement their research and save time.
The regular prices of a Morningstar subscription is $199/yr with a 14-day trial. However, our readers can get $30 off a one-year subscription, $70 off a 2-year subscription, and $100 off a 3-year subscription. Sign up here >>>
TheStreet
Who is it for?
TheStreet is a bit of a mix of The Motley Fool and Kiplinger. It has lots of personal finance content available for free. You can also subscribe to one of many stock alert newsletters, including some run by Jim Cramer. The Street is for a broad audience and has something for everyone.
There are a lot of investment newsletters here. They include topics on stocks, retirement, cryptocurrencies, and ratings. At last count, there were 11 subscriptions to choose from. Two of those, however, are bundles — Real Money Pro Portfolio and Chairman’s Club.
Benzinga
Who is it for?
Benzinga is a real-time news platform that is best suited to day traders. You can customize which news sources to include in your feed, along with the types of news you’d like to see. Filters are important when it comes to creating an efficient newsfeed. Otherwise, you can become quickly overwhelmed with all the data coming out.
There's also a squawk available. A squawk basically reads out various news events to you. This keeps you from having to constantly scan the newsfeed. The squawk voice is an actual person, so it's always intelligible (unlike some computer-generated voices). One drawback of the squawk is that you can't configure it since it's just a feed made up of someone reading content aloud.
Benzinga has two subscriptions: Basic ($99/mo) and Essential ($177/mo). The Essential includes all of the Basic features plus audio squawk, newsdesk chat, and more. 20% and 35% discounts are available when paying annually.
Mindful Trader
Who is it for? Mindful Trader sits between day trading and long-term investing which makes it best for swing traders. You receive alerts for specific trades.
Trades are managed and have stop losses. You’ll need about $10,000 to get started. The service uses a data-driven approach to finding trades.
Expect about 1-3 alerts per day from Mindful Trader. However, as mentioned, it isn’t day trading and there may be entire weeks that have no trades. The service cost $47/mo. You can cancel anytime.
SAS Capital
Who is it for? SAS Capital is another trading service suited to swing traders. But, instead of stocks, it focuses on selling far out-of-the-money puts.
This may be a lesser-known technique for many traders. The idea behind selling puts is to collect premium or income.
There are two subscriptions: One is a basic service for beginners and costs $37/mo. It sends out one newsletter per week. The other is called HNI and oriented to those with account sizes of at least $100,000. The HNI subscription costs $499/mo. It sends out more frequent alerts through text and email. You can cancel anytime.
Final Thoughts
Investment newsletters and subscriptions can help decrease the amount of time investors spend researching stocks. Getting an alert to buy a certain stock and another alert to sell it can make things almost seem too easy. That’s why it's important to find newsletters with good track records that don’t take excessive risks.
Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him on the About Page, or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.
He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared towards anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.
He has been quoted in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.
