The short answer is a definite YES! But…
… only if you are the right kind of investor for the service The Motley Fool targets.
This financial services firm began in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner and is based in Alexandria, Virginia.
The business began by publishing a variety of guides and investment advice through mediums like AOL.
As the business name represents, the Gardner brothers may not take themselves too seriously, but when it comes to investment advice, they are more sincere.
In 2002 that the brothers really began to step things up. They introduced their flagship product called Stock Advisor. This investment advice service selects two stocks each month and sends them to their subscribers on the first and third Thursdays of each month.
The Motley Fool also provide other valuable features including:
- Starter stock list
- Best buys now, which includes a list of exchange-traded funds
- In-depth stock analysis, and
- Rule breaker – another subscription service
The annual subscription for Stock Advisor is just $199, but you can get your first year for just $99 if you click here.
Their Rule breaker service is more expensive at $299/year, but again you can get your first year for just $99. Like Stock Advisor you get two stocks picked each month, but by a completely different team of analysts.
Where Rule breakers really differs is that the stocks are companies considered to be industry disrupters. They either have a unique management team, or they are bringing something new to the market. Examples include Tesla, Facebook, Shopify, and Etsy. Most tend to be technology companies and the volatility is far greater, however the returns reflect the quality of the stock picking.
However, there are many people who should NOT look to The Motely Fool for investment advice, these are people who: –
- Are brand new to investing
- Do not understand market volatility
- Would be terrified by a 20% drop in the value of their stock portfolio
- Have an investment strategy based on regular buying and selling of stock; or
- Do not have several thousand dollars to invest.
The Motley Fool selects, analyses, and recommends stocks that suit a long-term investor who will hold the stock through the good and the bad times of stock market volatility. Even the best companies in the world risk suffering a drop in their stock price when a war breaks out on the other side of the world.
Some stocks recommended are now costing in the hundreds of dollars for a single stock. So, you will not get much benefit from The Motley Fool is you are just playing with a little ‘spare change’.
You need to be a serious investor with more than just a few hundred dollars to invest each month. You should ideally be willing to build up a portfolio of between 15 to 30 stocks and be prepared to hold onto your investments unless the Motley Fool recommends selling. That will usually only happen when something significant is changing the value of the company.
So, if you are the right kind of investor, why is The Motley Fool worth it?
1) The Low Cost
With the amount of money you are investing, $199 is small change and your portfolio has an excellent chance if earning you much more than the annual fee each year if you hold your portfolio over the long-term recommended.
2) The Returns
The Stock Adviser service shows an average return for all its stocks since it began in 2002 up to the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine of 494%. This compares to the S & P 500 return for the same period of 133%. The Rulebreaker service over the last 15 years and again up to the current crises, has an average return of 264% since it began, while the S & P 500 for the same period averaged 114%.
3) Transparency
The Motley Fool openly show their wins and their losses and tracks their ups and their downs. You can access a performance page showing the returns of every stock they have picked. One was a stock called Pacific Sunwear which had a return of -95% and was closed in 2009. Luckin Coffee was involved in a scandal involving fake buyers and has a return of -62.5%. Despite these losses their returns still average over 600%
You could say they were lucky to select Netflix in 2004, but it is the thoroughness of the team analysis that finds quality companies with successful futures.
Should You Subscribe to The Motley Fool?
The returns from Stock Advisor and The Rulebreaker speak for themselves. If you have the money available and can stomach the risks inherent in a stock portfolio aimed at very long-term holding, the Motley Fool enables you to take control of your portfolio and achieve better returns.
Some people have complained about the excessive upselling. But all communication you receive is optional, and it is easy to opt out of the marketing mailers.
As if the low first year cost isn’t attractive enough, they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Is Motley fool worth it? For me, it’s a definite yes.
If the stock picking style and long-term holding of stocks is what you are after, then it is hard to go past the proven consistent performance of the Motley Fool.
Subscribe to The Motley Fool today by clicking this link.
