Review by for Money (1-year auto-renewal)
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Money magazine is an excellent starter magazine. The information in Barrons, Smart Money and other magazines will go over the heads of those with little or no investment knowledge. Many people don’t know financial terminology such as 403(b), ESOP, Wrap fee, 529 plan, and load fund. Money magazine is a gentle introduction to these concepts. You may find in a year or two that you have outgrown Money and by then you should be able to move onto other financial magazines. The negative reviewers here fault Money for being unhelpful in stock-picking. However, there is a lot more to Money magazine than stocks. I personally find the information on taxes, mutual funds, retirement planning, the housing market, saving strategies and the latest business news interesting and helpful. If your interest is mainly in stocks I recommend Barrons instead. But for overall financial knowledge Money is the best magazine for beginners.

Review by Daniel L Edelen for Money (1-year auto-renewal)
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“Money” magazine has long been a staple of those who are looking to better their financial condition. But time and circumstance have not proven kind to it.In an age when markets fluctuate wildly from day to day, a monthly newsmagazine for investors cannot match the timeliness and level of information needed to compete adequately in the stock market. Since “Money” has long been a staunch advocate of stock investing, this makes its advice dated and incomplete. As many websites and financial journals (“Barron’s”, “The Wall Street Journal”) exist to fill the void for timely info, “Money” is becoming an anachronism. That its press deadlines are probably a month or two before publication, it lags far behind in catching trends and responding to them. Today’s investors need better.As a proponent of buying stock, “Money” has found its recommendations pummeled lately. Because people buy “Money” to help them make money, if the magazine cannot pick winners then its usefulness suffers. During this bear market, the magazine has flailed in its attempts to ride out the storm, trying to latch on to something, anything, that will work. This does not lend itself to investor confidence.A case in point can illustrate. The magazine recently suggested a group of mutual funds across a variety of sectors/styles that they felt were good picks. The problem lay in the fact that not a single one had made money in the last couple years. Now certainly to make money you buy low and sell high, but there are several solid mutual fund companies that have made money in this market and would make money in a bull market, too. There are even funds that fared better than the average of the market, though they did not immediately turn a positive result. But “Money” did not pick any of those. With no end in sight to the market downturn, would you put money into a mutual fund that had lost 25% of its value in the last year?”Money” excels when it discusses strategies for saving money on purchases, aids in avoiding taxes, or looks at financial vehicles that are less common (REITs, etc.), but since its bread and butter is still stocks and bonds, it is less helpful than other resources.You’ve got to be able to swim with the sharks. Years ago, “Money” was able to stay afloat. But in today’s different investing environment, “Money” is simply so much chum in the water.