When getting into investing, there is certainly a lot of information to be read. Some of it is good, a lot of it is bad. I’ve covered some of the good investing books to read in previous posts (browse the categories for Book Recommendations to find these). Today I’ll provide some information on the periodicals I read.
Of course, with everything going from print to online, there are a lot of online resources as well. I generally use printed material, however. I spend enough time on the computer at work – I’d rather relax at home in an easy chair with a newspaper than spend more time staring at a screen. In addition, some searching for stocks involves flipping through and looking for price patterns. This cannot be done from a website.
Research has also shown that people don’t actually read websites (are you even reading this?). They usually read the first few lines, then scan to the bottom, only reading the first few words on the left side of the screen. They then maybe read the last few lines. You may visit a lot of websites, but are probably not picking up a lot of information online.
So, here are the periodicals I read and why:
ValueLine Investment Survey: If you are serious about investing, you need to get a subscription to ValueLine or visit your library and use their’s. There is just too much good information in there for picking stocks. I generally will look at the top rated stocks in each section as it comes out for good investments. I also will look through the list of stocks with a 1 for Timeliness and then dig into the issue for more information for the ones that look attractive.
Wall Street Journal: This is a good resource for learning about how to invest, as well as for keeping up on trends in the economy. The third section usually has a column covering some aspect of investing. They also has many articles on the upcoming housing bubble crash in 2006 and 2007. The folks at the Federal Reserve who said they didn’t see it coming were obviously not reading the Journal. I did and was short thrift stocks and oil stocks when the crash came.
Barrons: This is the Wall Street Journal’s grumpier sister publication. It has several good columns covering different sectors of the economy. It also has a lot of different stock tables, although these have become less useful since there is now so much information online.
Forbes: Forbes aggravates me sometimes since they promote ridiculous lifestyles of excess (most of the people who are buying all of these luxury goods don’t have two dimes to rub together at the end of the day). They do have some good articles on investing strategies, however, and are a good way to keep up on the effects of legislation on markets.
Money: I find that a lot of the advice in Money is really bad. They are often talking about ways to get rewards on credit cards and go into debt. There are some good articles on saving and investing, however. It also gives you insight into what “normal” people’s finances are like. If you want to be wealthy, you can’t be normal when it comes to money. Normal is broke.
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Disclaimer: This blog is not meant to give financial planning or tax advice. It gives general information on investment strategy, picking stocks, and generally managing money to build wealth. It is not a solicitation to buy or sell stocks or any security. Financial planning advice should be sought from a certified financial planner, which the author is not. Tax advice should be sought from a CPA. All investments involve risk and the reader as urged to consider risks carefully and seek the advice of experts if needed before investing.
