Many investors have asked us what we thought of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To start off, my background is as a financial advisor and then advisor to financial advisors, so my standard is a bit high when it comes to research. That being said, I would rate Kiplinger a solid 5 for the average investor and a 3 on a scale of 10 being the best if you are an investment professional.
Is Kiplinger’s subscription worth it? The short answer is no for most people because it adds a lot of fluff that is too general for more financial advisors or investors to use. My opinion is that Kiplinger is a “personal finance newsletter” vs a true investment research newsletter. Kiplinger does provide some great general or macro commentary but is often falls short on real macro events. The same can be said of their stock picks, which are not bad, but just too broad and general.
The positives for Kiplinger is definitely the price. For roughly $30 a year you get access to their website and the magazine. It does also provide some good money management articles that could be helpful to new investors. Some of the popular sections include Kiplinger ETF 20, Kiplinger 25 Mutual Funds, and Monthly Featured Stock Topic.
So you might ask, what are some alternatives for investment professionals or investors. My first pick is ABS Advisor. It is a weekly market intelligence newsletter for financial advisors and accredited. Readers receive macro commentary of what is driving the market, trends, and stock/ETFS all in one journal. Others to consider would be Bloomberg or the Gartman Letter (unfortunately he no longer publishes).
