Foolish, Or Moronic? Neither, the Vast Middle.
Written: Jul 16 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Content Timeliness: |
 |
|
| Information Depth: |
 |
|
| Web Site Experience: |
|
|
| Web Site Load Time: |
|
|
|
Pros: Decent, basic advice.
Cons: Dont take it too seriously.
The Bottom Line: Use it, learn the basics, then move on.
|
|
|
| yanster0's Full Review: Motley Fool |
Fool's Advice in A Nutshell
Here's the Motley Fools (good) advice in a nutshell -
1.Save money.
2.Avoid taxes.
3.Look out for fees.
4.Dont try to beat the market, since you probably cant.
Some More Good Advice
Here's some stuff I learned from watching TV in order to be generally healthy.
1.Exercise.
2.Eat Right.
3.Get enough sleep.
Wow. Amazing.
Am I A Doctor?
With that kind of advice, I could probably be a Doctor! Right?
No?
Okay, so that's my problem with The Motley Fool. They give people generally decent advice, and we would indeed be better off if we followed it. However, if that was all that was needed, the Motley Fool would have about 20-30 pages on its website and an occasional update to tell people about tax law changes.
Fool as Bureaucracy
The mission of a bureaucracy is said to be self-preservation. Indeed, the Motley Fool has become a Bureaucracy. It is now in the business of giving people a false sense of security, a false sense as if the Fool's themselves have come up with some “ingenious” and funny way to beat all the “Wise”-asses and for them to have some magical understanding of economic and financial issues that are in truth very confounding to those who have studied the issue seriously for many years. And, as is true in most of the financial press (CNBC, Bloomberg even) the slant is almost always towards the Bullish argument.
A falling dollar? It's good for US exports, and bad for those who buy imports.
A rising dollar? It makes goods cheaper and shows that people have faith in the United States economy.
Rising interest rate? Bad for those who borrow and good for those who save.
Falling interest rates? Good for those in debt, good for companies because they can expand cheaply.
All of these things are somewhat true, but it is like saying air conditioning cools air and uses electricity. True, but really not sufficient in explaining the mechanics behind the entire apparatus.
By never getting into the whys and hows of these economic and financial events the reader is left with a very superficial understanding of these events. Unfortunately The Motley Fool does not even have a disclaimer that says “Warning, we are boiling this down, so you should read X, Y and Z to really understand it.”
False Confidence
So the readers end up having a very false sense of confidence built into them. They feel they are doctors after taking a High School health class.
They most certainly are not.
This does not mean that the health class offered bad advice. Certainly we should not go on an excessive drinking, smoking, eating or coke and meth fueled marathon of insomnia.
However, realizing that does not qualify you to do surgery. That takes years and years of practice and learning (largely on your own, about yourself).
Conclusion
Read the Fool, but after you read about the 401(k) accounts, the IRAs and the benefits of savings, open up a discount brokerage account (an IRA) and essentially ask yourself – Do I want to know more? Really?
If the answer is yes, be prepared to read a lot and learn a lot about everything from Technical Analysis to Fundamental Analysis, maybe with a heavy dose of Contrarian investing, Economics, Finance, etc. Become a jaded person, become cynical, become an investor.
If that sounds like too much work, buy EWJ, DIA, SPY, EWU and maybe another Ishares or global index fund to diversify your equity portfolio, then sit back and hope for the best. That's what you'd be doing anyway. But at least you wouldnt be fooling yourself with false confidence.
And in the end – that's a common point for almost all of us. Best of luck, you're gonna need it.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
yanster0
|
|
Reviews written: 95
Trusted by: 9 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.