Tuition- Free Investor Education
Written: Jun 30 '03
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Pros: VERY thorough education site; More than 100 financial calculators
Cons: No cons that I can see
The Bottom Line: This is one of the most comprehensive investor education sites on the world wide web.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Motley Fool School |
Motley Fool is an on- line financial resource with facts and helpful tools relating to personal finance and investing. This site was founded in 1994 by brothers David and Tom Gardner, two guys who had an active interest in the subject of finance and felt it was their duty to spread that knowledge around the world.
Most people who visit Motley Fool’s web site log on to lookup stock quotes and other financial data. But this is only one of the many features of this site. Another one is the Fool’s School, an on- line tutorial on the subject of finance and investing.
What Does This Service Offer?:
Motley Fool’s financial school is divided into the following main sections:
Getting Started- This part of the educational site consists of eight main areas of financial knowledge: Investing Basics; Mutual Funds; Index Center; Get a Broker; How to Value Stocks; DRIP Investing; Why Buy and Hold; and Investment Clubs. To find out more about a particular topic, you just select the appropriate link. Many of these are then broken down further. For example, if you select Mutual Funds, you will then have several sub- categories to choose from, like “Index Funds for Fools” and “A Fund Owner’s Guide”.
13 Steps to Investing- Once you’ve completed the above section, you can then proceed to this step by step guide. Included here are the following 13 topics: What is Foolishness; Settle your Finances; Setting Expectations; Index Funds; All about DRIPS; Open a Discount Brokerage Account; Planning for Retirement; Get Financial Information; Evaluating Businesses; Understand Rule Maker Investing; Consider Rule Breakers and Small Caps; Advanced Investment Issues; and Get Fully Foolish. These topics are a little more advanced, and they are listed in roughly a knowledge- based order, starting with the most basic step to take before investing and then continuing through more advanced steps.
Glossary of Financial Terms- This one is self- explanatory. It’s simply an A to Z guide of some of the more common and not so common investment jargon with a simple explanation of the meaning behind each term.
Discussion Boards- Fools School- There are a total of eight message boards here: Ask a Foolish Question; Mutual Funds; Index Funds; Discount Brokers; DRIP Investing- the basics; DRIP Investing- the companies; Investment Clubs; and Fool Ratio. These are updated periodically, whenever someone decides to post a new message. In the more popular boards (like Mutual Funds) there is usually a new message posted every day.
Other Topics:
Besides the main courses listed above, Motley Fool has other ways to educate you. From the Fool’s School main page you can access facts and financial calculators relating to such topics as credit cards, home buying, insurance, savings, taxes, etc. There’s even a special section for teens and money, explaining to teenagers the concepts of budgeting, saving, and investing.
Costs for Usage:
There are no direct fees to use this service. You need to sign up with a user account to access some of the services, like the message boards, but there is no cost for this. The Fool’s School is completely tuition free.
Final Thoughts:
Motley Fool’s investor education center is one of the best of its kind on the world wide web! I have been using these financial education sites for many years now, and I often recommend a site to others who are interested in learning more about the subject of personal finance. The Fool’s School is the one that I recommend more than any other.
There are several good reasons for my enthusiasm for this site. First of all, the educational material presented is comprehensive and in many instances, it goes well beyond the call of duty in its coverage of a given topic. Take credit reporting, for example. Most other investor education sites will only cover a few basics and most of what they cover includes obvious facts that individuals already know (like applying for a report, getting blemishes removed from your report, etc.). But Motley Fool takes things to a new level, with commentary like “How Lenders Keep Score”, “What’s your Credit Karma?”, “Attacking Identity Theft”, and many more. Other topics are also very thorough, with pages and pages of useful information and facts.
Another thing I like about this site that’s related to the investor education process are the on- line calculators. There are more than one- hundred calculators that you can access in this site. Are you curious about how long it will take to eliminate your credit card balance with a minimum payment? What about your level of investment when you retire? How about your education savings? Each one of these questions can be answered using one of the many financial calculators. You just enter a few numbers into the appropriate boxes, and you will have your answer in a matter of seconds.
Some of the areas of the Fool’s School include things that you don’t see mentioned in other sites at all, even though they seem to me like basic knowledge that any investor education site should cover. An example here is Motley Fool’s advice on choosing companies to invest. Most sites cover this topic, but many fail to include one obvious part: How to value stocks. Other sites will explain the meaning behind P/E ratios, Return on Equity, and the like. But they never show how it all ties together. Motley Fool explains what the terms mean, and then it goes on to explain things like interpreting balance sheets, cash flow, and security analysis. You come away feeling like you really know what stock valuation is all about.
Motley Fool’s message boards are helpful and they provide new investors with a means to find answers to questions and share knowledge with other users. These are well- organized into different categories so you don’t waste your time sifting through thousands and thousands of messages, looking for the answer to a simple question.
On the main page of the Fool’s School, it’s common to see an occasional meaningless poll. Often, these polls cover some issue that has nothing to do with finance. The last poll I saw asked members to vote on their favorite brand of ice cream. I’m not sure why the managers of the web site felt the need to add something like this. Maybe it was to lighten things up with a poll about something not very serious? I’m not certain.
Motley Fool’s investor education service is an excellent way to learn about the subject of personal finance and investing. Even more advanced investors will find the information useful. It’s all available free of charge, too. So don’t procrastinate- logon and take a look. You can learn all about the world of personal finance, in the Fool’s School.
Recommended:
Yes
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