The Motley Fool: Opinions

[poundwise]

Several years ago, I requested and received a copy of an investing guide from The Motley Fool. They no longer offer this little yellow booklet on their site, by the way. Anyway, I enjoyed this and held a positive view overall of TMF but I was not ready to invest at all at that time.

I recently took a trip for which I checked out some audio-books from the library. One of these was "The Motley Fool Guide to Investing" which was dated 1996.

I listened to this cassette tape twice during my trip and, again, liked what I heard.

When I arrived home, I visited TMF site to see if I could find out more. What I found was that two of the three major points, or steps, presented in that 1996 audio-book were no longer being preached. I also learned that there is a newer edition of the guide out there but was surprised to see that the site didn't have much more than a basic guide to investing. I do like "Fool School" which is a nice feature for people interested in learning about investing.

What I did see is that TMF philosophy and 'guidance' seems to be offered in the form of annual newsletters. Lots of annual newsletters, each with their own price-tag. This fact, coupled with the fact that the 1996 guide instructions don't seem to have held up 10 years later, makes me wary of utilizing TMF in any way going forward. In spite of this, I am still interested in learning more about TMF because, in general, I like their approach and, at least I did, like their methodology too.

Does anyone on this forum use TMF? Either the book(s) or the site or any of the newsletters?

If so, what is your overall opinion of them? Do you recommend them? Etc.

Thanks.

[tinapbeana]

i do not used the paid services from TMF. i would say i use the 'free newsletters', but those are all basically ads for the paid service with no real information. now they are filtered straight to my trashcan...

[jIM_Ohio]

Several years ago, I requested and received a copy of an investing guide from The Motley Fool. They no longer offer this little yellow booklet on their site, by the way. Anyway, I enjoyed this and held a positive view overall of TMF but I was not ready to invest at all at that time.

I recently took a trip for which I checked out some audio-books from the library. One of these was "The Motley Fool Guide to Investing" which was dated 1996.

I listened to this cassette tape twice during my trip and, again, liked what I heard.

When I arrived home, I visited TMF site to see if I could find out more. What I found was that two of the three major points, or steps, presented in that 1996 audio-book were no longer being preached. I also learned that there is a newer edition of the guide out there but was surprised to see that the site didn't have much more than a basic guide to investing. I do like "Fool School" which is a nice feature for people interested in learning about investing.

What I did see is that TMF philosophy and 'guidance' seems to be offered in the form of annual newsletters. Lots of annual newsletters, each with their own price-tag. This fact, coupled with the fact that the 1996 guide instructions don't seem to have held up 10 years later, makes me wary of utilizing TMF in any way going forward. In spite of this, I am still interested in learning more about TMF because, in general, I like their approach and, at least I did, like their methodology too.

Does anyone on this forum use TMF? Either the book(s) or the site or any of the newsletters?

If so, what is your overall opinion of them? Do you recommend them? Etc.

Thanks.

If you need to learn about investing, I would not pay to learn... you can learn it all for free. What are you hoping to accomplish?

[poundwise]

If you need to learn about investing, I would not pay to learn... you can learn it all for free. What are you hoping to accomplish?

I do not need to learn about investing per se. That is, the basics of investing, types of investing, understanding evaluation ratios, etc. I have done much of that already and, in fact, went through the Fool School and found out that I already knew pretty much all that they had to offer.

I was just intrigued by the systematic approach to evaluating stocks and working a portfolio as established in the former version of the TMF investment guide. Seeing now that the advice has changed, I was interested in learning how and why to see if TMF has any value.

Just to point out to any reading this as well, I am not talking about retirement investing or mutual funds, etc. I am looking at, once out of debt and fully funding (annually) retirement accounts, investing in stocks as a personal financial venture and even, dare I say, enjoyment.

[jIM_Ohio]

I do not need to learn about investing per se. That is, the basics of investing, types of investing, understanding evaluation ratios, etc. I have done much of that already and, in fact, went through the Fool School and found out that I already knew pretty much all that they had to offer.

I was just intrigued by the systematic approach to evaluating stocks and working a portfolio as established in the former version of the TMF investment guide. Seeing now that the advice has changed, I was interested in learning how and why to see if TMF has any value.

Just to point out to any reading this as well, I am not talking about retirement investing or mutual funds, etc. I am looking at, once out of debt and fully funding (annually) retirement accounts, investing in stocks as a personal financial venture and even, dare I say, enjoyment.

If investing in stocks and wanting to learn more, my suggestion is to learn from experience and be willing to make mistakes.

I have invested in stocks 3 times. Meaning I have had 3 different accounts. One of them is still open-it's a custodial account for my goddaughter. Other 2 are closed for various reasons.

I am also in a stock picking contest on another board, and those people do a good job telling me what I don't know. I am probably learning as much from the contest as I did with real money.

start small, learn, think big.