The Motley Fool is a website that covers all aspects of stock trading and is operated by brothers Tom and David Gardener. Income Investor is a premium low risk stock trading service which tips new stocks each month with a focus on stocks that pay out dividends.
What does the product offer?
All too often when we talk about trading and making money online we are talking about Forex and trading currency pairs or commodities. What we don’t see so often are services which are based around the purchase of stocks and shares, which is a shame, because some of the strongest long term profits lie on the stock market. I plan to remedy this by looking at some of the services operated by The Motley Fool, starting with their Income Investor.
Motley Fool Income Investor is a service that offers subscribers insight into what stocks are best purchased for those who are looking for dividend payments from their portfolio. For those who don’t know what this means, a dividend is an amount of profit which is paid out to shareholders by a company. Not every share that you buy on the stock market will offer dividends and so for those who are looking for a “cash” income from buying stocks this information is invaluable.
The Motley Fool team are naturally very selective when it comes to their selections and rightly so. This means that you will receive just 1 top dividend stock pick per month. The Motley Fool team also explain why that company may be a good addition to your portfolio, however they also look at the potential risks. This is all surprisingly in depth with Motley Fool Income Investor talking about things like the current cash position of the company, future plans, debt etc.
There is much more than simply receiving one piece of stock advice per month to Motley Fool Income Investor however. You also receive unlimited access to every current and former Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation which is a significant number of picks. There is also access to the Motley Fool teams top selections which have the “highest potential upside”.
On top of this, Motley Fool Income Investor subscribers will receive updates on what is happening that affects the stocks in your portfolio. This can be a massive help as it allows those who are new to trading to understand how even small changes in the world can affect your stock. Most importantly for me, this is never really handled in a condescending manner and is genuinely helpful. Finally, in order to help you to protect your portfolio, you also receive sell recommendations.
You also get full access to the Motley Fool knowledge base. This provides comprehensive training on everything that you need to know to help you to become a successful investor. Finally, you get access to the Motley Fool community. This is one of the biggest online investment communities and from what I have experienced of it, everybody seems to be working towards the same goals.
How does the product work?
More than anything else, there is one thing that drives Motley Fool Income Investor and that is the knowledge and understanding of the Motley Fool team. Whilst Tom and David Gardner don’t appear to be involved in picking the selections for Motley Fool Income Investor directly (a chap called Michael Olsen is the lead advisor for the service), it is clear that the wider Motley Fool group know their stuff. Truthfully, the website as a whole is considered to be one of the foremost sources knowledge when it comes to stock trading.
What is the initial investment?
There are two subscriptions for Motley Fool Income Investor both of which are long term options. The first is to sign up for Motley Fool Income Investor for a year which costs $199 per year (around £150 at the time of writing) or alternatively, you can sign up for $349 (which is around £260). There is also the option to trial Motley Fool Income Investor for 30 days without paying anything upfront which is a refreshing change.
What is the rate of return?
The rate of return for Motley Fool Income Investor is something that is very difficult for me to judge. The results that are published by Motley Fool show that since 2003, the cumulative growth of a $10,000 bank would take you up to a little over $35,000. The truth of the matter is that when you are dealing with something like Motley Fool Income Investor, you aren’t looking at making an immediate profit. It is very much a long term investment.
In terms of the dividends that are paid out, these tend to be small amounts. You will generally be looking at pennies on the share.
Conclusion
First of all, if you are looking for a genuine way of investing and growing a stock portfolio, you can do a lot worse than Motley Fool Income Investor. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the Motley Fool team have put together one of the most attractive propositions on the market. I know this because my start came about trading stocks and shares online. I never made a fortune because frankly, I simply didn’t have the capital to invest seriously at the time, but I do have a reasonable understanding of this world.
Truthfully, one of the reasons that I haven’t looked at stocks and shares before now is because for most people who are looking to make money online, it doesn’t fit their needs. Without a substantial amount of investment capital, you won’t really make a profit that you can live off day to day (and even then, this seems questionable for most). What trading stocks and shares can do however is to slowly and steadily build your capital.
If you are the kind of person who has the patience and inclination to aim towards a long term investment, then you can do a lot worse for your advice than Motley Fool Income Investor. In fact, I can comfortably say that I am genuinely impressed with what the Motley Fool team have put together. On top of this, it also represents quite good value for money. I accept that there is a lot of initial outlay, but given that this is for at least a year, I find it to be reasonable.
With all of this in mind, I would absolutely recommend Motley Fool Income Investor. It isn’t for everybody though. I have already talked about how trading stocks and shares is a bit of a niche concept compared to what I usually look at. It is also worth pointing out that the Motley Fool offer a number of other services offering stocks and share tips that are higher risk which I may look at at a later date. For now however, I can say that Motley Fool Income Investor is worth a look.
