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Which Personal-Finance Magazine is Best?
Monday, 22nd September 2008 (by J.D.)This article is about Books, Choices, Odds and Ends
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Beth wrote recently looking for help:
I’m a public library worker, and my library needs personal finance advice!
We feel strongly that we need to keep a personal finance magazine in circulation, but the ones we’ve subscribed to in the past have been met with the deafening silence of complete disinterest. We’ve had Money for a year with no checkouts; before that, we had Fortune for two years with no checkouts. We’re thinking about replacing Money, but really, with such an overwhelming lack of response, we need to make a compelling argument to management to keep this subject heading at all.
The library is in a poor, historically working-class county with a lot of minimum-wage workers, retirees and near retirees, so the general level of knowledge is pretty low. We need a magazine that will appeal to people looking for very basic information. Is there something on the market — maybe between a home economy mag and a traditional finance mag — that might appeal more to this group of users?
This is a great question, and comes at the perfect time. I’ve been grousing to Kris lately about how out-of-touch the Big Three personal finance magazines can be. They write too much about buying Hot Stocks Now (which I call financial porn), and not enough about saving money at the grocery store. Both are important parts of personal finance, but guess which one we deal with more every day?
Last year I reviewed a handful of personal finance magazines. Here are updated reviews, including evaluations of several additional titles.
Money ($20 for 12 issues a year)
Based on conversations with Get Rich Slowly readers and other financial bloggers, it would seem Money is the reigning champion of personal-finance magazines. I like it, but it’s not my favorite. I feel like it’s too investing-centric, and that it has a tendency to go for sensationalist headlines. Still, over the last year, I’ve grown to appreciate Money for articles like these:
- Take charge of your health care (April 2008)
- Life without plastic (July 2008), a story about families who don’t use credit cards. (By Donna Rosato, one of my favorite money writers.)
- 21 good things to do in a bad market (September 2008)
Money has big-name financial writers and slick production values. Though this magazine seems to be targeted at those just beginning to take control of their financial lives, I learn something from each issue. Most Money articles are easy to find on-line a few weeks after publication.
Smart Money ($12 for 12 issues a year)
I don’t care for Smart Money. It’s the weakest of the publications in this article. For one thing, it’s not targeted at the average person. It’s targeted at people who have a lot of money and are willing to spend it. Each issue includes articles like:
- Luxury trips for less (July 2008 cover story)
- How to find great bargains on golf club memberships (July 2008) — you can pay just $55,000 for a $200,000 membership!
- The write stuff, a guide to $500+ fountain pens (September 2008)
- Each issue features a car review (usually for a luxury vehicle)
Smart Money is especially bad at hyping stocks and mutual funds, and the magazine’s once insightful “10 things X won’t tell you” feature is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Ten things museums won’t tell you? Ten things celebrity chefs won’t tell you? Celebrity chefs? Time to pack that feature in, folks.
I’ll renew my subscription to this, but only because (a) it’s cheap and (b) I write a blog about money.
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ($12 for 12 issues a year)
Kiplinger’s doesn’t get a lot of respect, which puzzles me. Many finance bloggers consider it the weakest of the Big Three, but I like it. I find the content down-to-earth and accessible. The articles are varied and go beyond just investing:
- Your essential financial toolkit (May 2008) is easily my favorite article in any personal-finance magazine this year
- How to avoid sneaky fees (July 2008)
- How to beat high prices (August 2008)
- Catch up on your retirement savings (September 2008)
Kiplinger’s certainly isn’t perfect. Like Money and Smart Money, it cannot resist articles like “the biggest and best funds to own now!” In fact, the most recent issue (September 2008) contains nineteen pages ranking mutual funds. As an index fund investor, this sort of thing is worthless to me. I actually think it’s worthless to most investors. Most of the time, however, Kiplinger’s does a good job of tackling a variety of topics.
The AAII Journal ($45 for 10 issues a year)
If you’ve decided that you’d like to be an active investor, your top magazine choice is probably the AAII Journal from the American Association of Individual Investors. This 36-page publication is not for novices, however. Its content is often technical and it’s geared toward picking individual stocks. Still, the AAII Journal contains some of the best articles on investing that I’ve read.
The AAII web site allows you to freely sample the “best of” the AAII Journal. Examples of recent topics from the magazine include:
- What graduates need to know about making financial decisions (January 2008)
- The role of diversification in an individual stock portfolio (April 2008)
- The market and the media: Turn it on, but tune it out (May 2008) — the basis for my article about why it pays to ignore financial news
- Optimizing retirement income: What works and why (August 2008)
The AAII Journal is excellent, and I recommend it without hesitation to those interested in an active approach to investing or for those craving thoughtful in-depth articles on the subject. The downsides? This magazine isn’t for novices and it’s expensive.
(The American Association of Individual Investors also publishes the bi-monthly 28-page Computerized Investing, which is all about various computer programs and web sites for investors. This magazine is mostly useless to me.)
Consumer Reports ($26 for 12 issues a year)
For my money, the best personal finance magazine available in the United States is Consumer Reports, the venerable publication from the non-profit Consumers Union. Most people are aware that Consumer Reports publishes detailed ratings of various product classes (the best kitchen faucets, the best televisions, the best macaroni and cheese, etc.), but each issues also contains other tips for managing your money.
Recent topics covered include:
- How to buy and sell a home
- How to protect yourself from identity theft
- When to buy organic produce
- How to boost your credit score
- And, of course, the credit card jungle article I’ve linked to four times this week
The online version of Consumer Reports includes all of the magazine’s content and more. It costs $26, the same as the print subscription. However, it costs $45 to subscribe to both. Some of the web site’s content is available for free, but the selection seems random. There are a variety of Consumer Reports blogs that offer free content, however.
Consumers Union publishes several other magazines, including:
- ShopSmart ($23/year) is like a “hip” Consumer Reports aimed at women in their twenties and thirties. Though each issue features articles like “Lip color that lasts” (June/July 2008) or “The perfect bra” (April/May 2008), most of the articles offer great tips for women and men. Because most personal-finance magazines seem to be male-oriented, I’m happy to see something targeted at women. I find ShopSmart’s content to top-notch and accessible. That last point makes it a great choice for the average person.
- Consumer Reports Money Adviser ($29/year) is a monthly 16-page newsletter focused on saving and investing. Money Adviser features solid information and (as with all CR publications) no advertising. Each issue contains two or three in-depth pieces about topics like protecting your identity, long-term care insurance, and coping with unexpected financial crises. Each issue contains a variety of shorter articles, too. The middle two pages always contain a “money lab”, which answers questions like, “Can socially-responsible investments offer decent returns?”
I like all of the magazines in the Consumer Reports family.
Bottom Line Personal ($39 for 24 issues a year)
Bottom Line Personal is a 24-page newsletter/magazine filled with information about building health, wealth, and personal relationships. It’s not really a financial magazine, although there are plenty of money articles in every issue. I think of it as Lifehacker in print form. Sample articles from recent issues include:
- Taming the bear market: A top strategist’s forecast and stock picks now (ugh — I hope that by now you all realize this is the sort of article I hate)
- Heart attack warning: What we can learn from Tim Russert’s death
- Why your not-to-do list is more important than your to-do list
- Seven foods proven to fight cancer
- The ultimate cheapskate’s simple tricks for spending much, much less
I like Bottom Line Personal, but often I feel like it’s magazine clutter. I can barely keep up with the publications I’ve listed above — this one is the straw the broke J.D.’s back. I’m unlikely to renew my subscription.
My recommendation
Each magazine will attract different types of readers. For some, Smart Money is the best choice, although it’s my least favorite of the bunch. But if I were trying to choose a magazine for a public library, I’d go for the one with the broadest appeal.
Beth’s library already subscribes to Consumer Reports (a fact I cut from her question). I think its sister publication, ShopSmart, would actually be the best choice in this case. It has top-notch content and it’s accessible. That latter point is huge. The articles are easy to read, and they’re filled with content relevant to everyday life.
Which personal finance magazines do you read? Do you subscribe to any publications? Do you borrow them from the library? Do you share them in a magazine exchange? Which would you recommend to Beth and her library?
65 Responses to “Which Personal-Finance Magazine is Best?”
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September 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 am
Hah - I love your term “financial porn.” I guess that these magazines need, or think that they need these attention grabbing headlines about what finds to buy TODAY in order to sell. What really cracks me up is the annual stocks/funds for the long term recommendations that are entirely different from the long term recommendations made 12 months ago. Makes one wonder what “long term” means to these guys.
I too am a fan of Kiplinger’s.
RDS
http://financialvalues.blogspot.com/
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 am
Personally I hate money magazine. I am an entrepreneur and I hate that money just tells you to work in your job and save money each year. it never tells you how to earn more money.
I figure if you can save 50 years to get $1 why not study and earn nothing for 15 years and then earn $1 in one year doing what you love? This is why I started an entrepreneurs blog because money magazine is too slow…sorry I know this blog is “get rich slowly” but still.
I think the library should try a budding entrepreneurs magazine
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:50 am
I’d like to hear what you do with old issues of these magazines. I started a subscription to smartmoney this year and have been holding onto the magazines so far. I guess I just don’t feel like clipping articles.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:10 am
Does Beth’s library provide online access to any financial magazines, newsletters, or databases? I can access Morningstar through my local library (even from home).
We took Smart Money for a while, because MBA-DH liked it for the investment info; I didn’t find the “personal finance for conspicuous consumers” to be helpful. So, I eventually stopped renewing it. DH hasn’t noticed yet.
My dad’s been gifting me a Kiplinger’s PF subscription every Christmas for many years. I don’t read every bit of investment advice, but I find the personal finance pieces helpful.
I subscribe to Consumer Reports online, and I can access the Wall Street Journal online through work (but I don’t).
However, none of these magazines are helpful if you don’t know the fundamentals of personal finance in general. Does the library have a lot of copies of basic personal finance books presented in a prominent display?
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 am
Personally, my favorite is Bottom Line because it’s a quick read. You can get a bunch of good nuggets of information without a significant time investment.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:18 am
I read Money (from the library) and I think that magazine is geared to wealthier folks. I wish they would do an article on folks who don’t make $100,000+ per year.
I subscribe to Consumer Reports but I don’t consider it a money type of magazine. I get it and look at what items are the best. I keep those magazines for future use (like when it’s time to buy a car).
I just ordered ShopSmart to get a free issue but I’ll probably cancel it after I receive it. I don’t think it will interest me at all.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:22 am
I think that I would recommend Consumer Reports, because it has a combination of money articles and reviews of big ticket items (but not the ones that you’re rich enough to buy!) And in my years on the reference desk, it was the one I got asked for the most. I get Money because they give it to me for about $1/issue, but I think that it’s geared to those who have a great deal already. I think that they’re moving into the small business world a bit now.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:01 am
Personally I read Money, Kiplingers and Smart Money. I just canceled Smart Money cause it was a little too high brow for me. For instance the last edition I read had an article about the best fountain pens out there - each were hundreds of dollars. Personal finance? $300 pens? huh? But yes, Money and Kiplinger’s are close to financial porn, but I enjoy them. Kiplinger’s goes along more with money saving ideas than just investing.
But again - none of these are going to fit your library’s needs. Your customers aren’t concerned about their investments or what wine to buy. They want to know how to get out of debt, how to repair their credit, how to break the payday loan cycle and how to get some education and a better job. Those were the questions I tried to help my customers answer when I was working in the library.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:27 am
I can understand the frustration of the library, but I’m curious as to how you get people to pick up the magazine in the first place.
I have Money and Kiplinger’s, and find Money to be the better of the two. I skip over all of the “this is the best stock because…” articles. But you have to realize they have to keep their advertisers happy (T Rowe Price, etc.)
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:43 am
I wonder if there is a magazine that is geared to helping families help children learn financial skills? It seems that something like this would be able to assist moderate to low-income families work together to develop stronger financial skills. Also, many people are willing to stretch and learn new things to help their kids even if they are a little apprehensive about learning something new for themselves.
And, is there a way for the library to have workshops on personal finance? Perhaps, they could also put together a web guide and show people what they could find online?
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
Hi
I have been writing about the Green Economy from Investing to Business since 1992 in the award-winning publication, The GreenMoney Journal.
Find the new Green Investing issue at- http://www.greenmoney.com
“Making Money and Making A Difference fromt he supermarket tot he stockmarket.”
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:21 am
Cynthia @10 - check out a new PBS show called Bizkids. It’s designed to teach kids how to make and manage money.
http://www.bizkids.com/
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
You might consider an easy way to get one or more of these magazines for “free.” I fly a variety of airlines, sporadically, meaning that I have small air mile accounts with most of the ff programs. Given that I don’t have a chance of getting a free flight on many of these airlines, I trade them in on magazine subscriptions. All three of the major magazines are usually represented.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
Personally, I like Kiplingers, though I subscribe to the other ones you mentioned. I am thinking of letting my Money subscription run out because a few of their recent “money makeovers” suggested things like reverse mortgage (for an elderly widower), etc. I’m not big on advising people to take on new debts.
I would think Kiplingers would be the best fit for her reader’s patrons. Perhaps Beth could even point library guests to relevant PF blogs, such as Get Rich Slowly, assuming the library has internet connectivity. The tone at some PF blogs is a little less high-brow than some magazines, and a little more real-world.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am
Thanks for putting up this review. I get Fortune and Money and certainly feel like they don’t offer much to “regular folk.” I’ll check into Consumer Reports. I didn’t realize that they cover more than just product reviews.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 am
I’ll also throw Better Investing into the mix. It’s a magazine produced by Better Investing (formerly NAIC), a non-profit organization that’s focused on financial education and support. Their philosophy is very much geared around individual empowerment and building wealth slowly for the long term (just like GRS). Similar to AAII, it’s primarily focused on investing in individual stocks, but it’s tremendously educational in understanding how financial markets work, and what makes certain companies successful in the long term. Their coverage of mutual fund investing and other personal finance topics has been growing over the last several years as well, and to Cynthia’s question, have been doing quite a bit around youth financial education.
It doesn’t have the ‘financial porn’ feel that Money/SmartMoney/Kiplingers do - they don’t hype individual stocks (though they do have analysis of certain stocks each issue), nor do they cater to advertisers (advertising is minimal). Recommended.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:47 am
Thanks for throwing the AAII Journal out there. I am not familiar with it, and it will give me something new to check out.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
This is a basic summary of what all of these financial magazines do:
1) Collect ad revenue from large investment firms.
2) Run columns claiming sector of the month is the only way to go for big bucks.
3) Recommend only the funds in this sector from… guess who? The people who take out multiple full page ads with them.
Their pandering to their advertisers is so transparent that it is insulting to my intelligence, shows how little these publications truly care about the readers and makes all of their advice suspect.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 am
Wow, what happened to plain old common sense? Put out a poll for the actual patrons of the actual library, with tick boxes for the various finance magazines, as well as a tick box for “none”.
What we all think online doesn’t matter. It’s what the users of the library want, that matters.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 am
@ Jane:
Thanks!! BizKids is my sister’s show, her dream and her brainchild. She’s all about teaching kids the basics of finance and money, and showing other kids that they can start and run successful businesses. Its a good place to start teaching one’s kids, since a TV show is an approachable and attractive medium for them.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
I also like to read Money Sense magazine…but really I think the blogs today provide as good an insight in the money world as any magazine does.
MiningOilGasGuru
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 am
Personally, I’m not a big fan of any of the popular press-type of subscriptions. I would strongly recommend a subscription to the Economist - it’s a thinking person’s guide to finance and a larger world view. Don’t discredit your population thinking that they will only appreciate “financial porn” types of magazines. Fostering economic education in a challenging format may be just what this working class population needs.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
I am amazed that no one would check those magazines out.
I have to agree with Ryan. There really is nothing in any of the magazines at how or what you can do to advance your bottom line and bring in more income.
I do admit though most of the magazines are written for people who have plenty of extra cash, not someone who works 9-5 and trying to figure out how to save!
There also chalked full of get rich quick adds and the like.
Yuck!
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:10 am
thanks for the list JD.. i think i’ll go to borders and check out kiplingers at lunch
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
JD, why the heck aren’t you publishing Get Rich Slowly the magazine?? I think you have identified a market need.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
I subscribed to Money for four years but let it go this year, for several reasons. I loved the “One Family’s Money” feature, but month after month, there would be lines such as, “The Smiths are in their mid-30s and have saved only $450,000 for retirement.” The *only* would just kill me.
Also, as many have said here, they would say repeatedly that you shouldn’t try to time the market, shouldn’t chase ‘hot’ stocks, and then they would list the ‘hot’ stocks for you.
Lastly, there is an atmosphere of “just do what you have to do at work so you can work your 30 years and get out.” Learn to play golf, learn about sports so you have something to talk about, look important and necessary to your company, don’t bring up anything controversial. Drove me nuts. So stifling, uncreative, boring.
This magazine does not speak to me or anyone I know. My friends are in their early 30s, many still paying school loans, struggling to support their families and own a home, but want a fulfilling life. Everyone is looking for balance. There is a big market out there for a new personal finance magazine. Blogs like this one are so much more useful to me.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
Wow Glad to see this topic here. I was going through a similar issue. I recently dropped smart money after a year and picked up Kiplingers. I also get Money magazine but think Kiplingers might be my favorite.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
@yas– that limits her only to publications her patrons are already familiar with.
A good collection development program at a library tries to also provide patrons with things that they didn’t know about, or didn’t know they needed, but are glad to find. (Saying she should ONLY decide what to subscribe to by asking her patrons is like saying a financial advisor should ONLY decide what to invest in by asking her clients what stocks they prefer. Yes, that’s obviously an important factor, but the job shouldn’t be limited to that.)
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
I know you didn’t write the actually inquiry, but I take total offense to the following: “The library is in a poor, historically working-class county with a lot of minimum-wage workers, retirees and near retirees, so the general level of knowledge is pretty low.”
I worked in the field of sociology and social work and there is much danger surrounded around labeling people who are not huge contributors to the society financially (i.e. low income, retirees) as low knowledge. I have completed several levels of education and would consider myself very knowledgeable, but maybe not so much so financially, hence why I subscribe to this great blog. Maybe that is what the inquirer meant?…I just wanted to make a note of it.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
@JKing
In the un-edited version of the question, it’s clear that the asker is talking about financial knowledge and not general knowledge. There’s always danger when I edit questions, but if I don’t, then we end up with novel-length posts.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:43 am
This has probably already been noted in earlier comments, but it seems to me that no personal finance magazine will be a good match for low-income people, because low-income people don’t have a ton of discretionary income to spend with advertisers.
As a result, a magazine that would contain suitable advice (not “best yacht deals”) for lower-income families would be boring and unappealing to advertisers.
If you listen to local advertisers on the Dave Ramsey show (not Dave’s own national advertisers), you know how often crap financial products (e.g. payday loans, credit repair schemes) advertise on these shows and actually prey on people in tough situations. Surely the same dynamic would be at work in a magazine.
So, my best advice is to not worry about the magazines, and to focus on quality, accessible personal finance books, like Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I like Money Magazine, although I think I’ll check out ShopSmart on your recomendation!
I am actually wondering if PF magazines are the best option for the library. My library won’t let you check out magazines (and I tend not to read at the library) so perhaps books are better. They would be able to give almost retirees and low-income people more indepth reading and thus be more likely to actually be useful for them!
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I wrote the original question.
In response to everyone who suggested Kiplinger’s: that was our tentative top pick before I wrote to JD, based partly on his post from last year, but I hoped a wider range of choices had become apparent since then. It’s still in the running, and so are both of the other Consumer Union titles.
KC pegged it exactly: “Your customers aren’t concerned about their investments or what wine to buy. They want to know how to get out of debt, how to repair their credit, how to break the payday loan cycle and how to get some education and a better job.” I wrote something almost exactly like this in the much longer, original question.
To clarify, for TosaJen, KC, and yas: yes, we have PF books - including quite a few that JD has recommended in the past - and they circulate, better than the magazines, but not heavily. Yes, we have some online resources; some of them are very new and we don’t have usage stats yet, but our databases are historically underused and so I’m not hopeful; that’s a separate problem that we’re also working on. No, we don’t have much in the way of videos - that’s a good idea; I’ll look into it. Yes, recommend GRS to patrons all the time!
The short version of yas’ question is that yes, we’ve done direct market research, and what we’ve found out is that they don’t know. They know - and I know - what their questions and needs are, but not what product addresses those questions; doing that research on their behalf is a big part of my job, and that’s why I wrote to JD. Someone is right; a lot of collection development is identifying the needs that people aren’t expressing, even (sometimes) when asked point blank.
JKing: JD’s right, I was referring specifically to a limited category of knowledge, and absolutely not labeling my patrons so much as trying to articulate a disconnect between their self-assessed (extant and desired) range of knowledge and the information the products I’ve evaluated are offering. Our director had a long career in social work before moving to libraries and I have some undergrad background in sociology and qualitative research; and the concerns you offer are a very large part of the discourse of libraries, particularly in collection development and service population theory. I hope that’s reassuring.
Haha! I hoped to keep this short…
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
What did you do to your RSS feed. I only got part of the blog in my reader. I might have to remove your feed from my reader, I’m not a fan of clicking through.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Sounds a lot like my library’s situation, as does KC’s library. Dave Ramsey is hugely popular, as is credit repair, getting out of debt, and making loads of money in real estate. Investing is mildly popular, but behind the rest.
There seems to be tons of interest in making money with real estate, which I don’t think is going to work out for many of these people. It’s all books about making $100k in real estate with no money down and the like.
Fortunately for me I’m not involved in buying the books because I’d have a hard time figuring out what to do in that case. I think that a) the library should own materials which its taxpayers want to use and b) the library shouldn’t buy books which are complete frauds. A book on gaming Powerball, for instance, is probably a fraud even if patrons would like it. But some of these real estate books are likely just as unlikely to yield successful results.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Is anyone else experiencing the problem Thomas describes in #34?
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I used to subscribe to both Smart Money and Money, but cancelled them both, as well as several other magazines, because a) I didn’t have time to read them all, b) I was spending a fairly substantial amount of money each month on subscriptions, and c) I like to read the PF blogs like this one (my favorite). I would much rather read online, where I can get current information and opinions, and not something someone wrote 6 weeks ago.
One magazine that I do subscribe to is Bottom Line Personal. I like it because it’s a fast, easy read, and gives a pretty good oversight in a lot of different areas that are of concern to me. If I want more information, I can easily find it online.
I also have a trial subscription to Bottom Line’s latest newsletter, Bottom Line Wealth, subtitled How to Grow your Money, Protect It, & Pass It On. Their mission, according to the editor, ‘is to provide useful information about money and what to do with it, in simple language that helps you understand what is good, what is bad, and why’. Doesn’t that sound like what that librarian is looking for? Time will tell if the content will live up to that mission.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Hi J.D. — I read your blog in Google Reader and it’s fine.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
JD. It seems to be ok now. If it happens again I’ll sent you a screenshot. BTW, I’m a fellow Oregonian. Keep up the good work.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I’m sure the library director knows this, but I’m not entirely sure you can look at a magazine and see that it was never checked out, and conclude that nobody read it. I go into the library all the time and just browse the magazines, reading the interesting ones right there. I never check them out, but I do read them.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Success Magazine is the best thus far. The rest is just fluff
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
You can check magazines out? I’ve always thought that magazines could only be read at the library. I’m pretty sure that is the policy at the library I frequent.
Re the magazines — I’m not a fan of any of them but of the ones discussed, Kiplinger’s would be the first pick. I’m not familiar with BottomLine or AAIC Journal.
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Rick: there’s a statistic called “in-house circulation,” which is collected when at intervals during the day we gather up items that people have browsed and scan them. That’s one of the reasons (actually, in some ways a more important reason than the more obvious one of things being put back in the wrong place) that so many libraries ask patrons not to re-shelve browsed materials. Yes, we know that not all browses are recorded, and we correct for that in the statistics as best we can.
db:
We have sixty-five subscriptions, and they’re all circulating. Our magazine guy is AMAZING. (Our periodicals budget is something like $500, to give you an idea - and a large chunk of that is eaten up by the expensive must-haves like Entertainment Weekly. He works magic with freebie offers!) We also have some patrons who, rather than subscribing to a mag just for themselves, donate the subscription to us and then check new issues out, which is really nice. I know some libraries restrict all periodicals - and we do restrict newspapers - but it’s become more and more common to let magazines go out. Suggest it to your local folks; they may already be considering it.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I just let my subscription to Money lapse - I thought I was getting good info from it, and it does have interesting articles now and again, but it seems to be repeating those.
I get more from sites like GRS and the discussions. So…thanks for saving me $20!
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Another librarian chiming in here — I have to agree with KC. These folks don’t want financial magazines because they’re all aimed at people who have money (usually a lot of it, too). Buy good quality personal finance books, geared for people who are getting started learning about their finances and/or starting over.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Any time I’ve read any financial magazines, I’ve been underwhelmed. I would subscribe for a few months and then cancel. I don’t think any of the magazines are geared towards average people who want to save money in basic ways. I’ve got the salary, but I am not like any of the folks they do articles on. I don’t have the huge mortgage, shopping habits, etc. I prefer books, newsletters, and PF sites like this one. Even Consumer Reports is geared towards consuming obviously and while I think they do fair reviews, I prefer looking online to get reviews of products and talking to friends who have bought a product that I am interested in buying. It’s just not often that CR writes on products I am interested in buying.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Although I have read a lot of material in the “get out of debt” catagory I have just started reading personal finance magazines. I had always avoided them because they intimidated me, I figured I wouldn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about.
I have found they are alot more interesting and readable than I had thought. I found Money to be easy to read with relavant articles. I have to agree that it would be nice to have articles about people that make less than 100,000.
Perhaps education about personal finance magazines would be helpful. If people are asking questions about or checking out finance books maybe you could direct them to the magazines you already have. Highlight articles that would be relevant to your patrons. In otheer words do some promotion and advertisement.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I subscribe to Black Enterprise Magazine. Although it’s core audience is the African American community, BE’s articles provide info for a single parent or a low income family as well as a CEO of a multimillion dollar corporation. There is help for young readers just starting out or mature readers looking to make a career change. Articles on investing, highlights on cities to see, and words of wisdom are also part of this easy to read & understand financial magazine.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
I don’t subscribe to any of these magazines but I would think Smart Money would be good as they have a good website.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I have found that the Web is the best and lowest cost source for good financial inforamtion. I do enjoy the Wall Street Journal but it more news than solid numbers information. The Internet does not satisfy my love to sit quietly with coffee and read but it by far out paces the main stream publications. I’ll go out on a limb here….try getting onto Financialsense.com, or Freebuck, or EuroPac…..John Mauldin’s stuff is good. Look up Jim Dines……out on a limb because trust me, this is not the financial fast food that got us into this mess.
This blog has a nice tone and is very encouraging, everybody please pay attention to the open minds here, and the respect. and get out there and get informed…..
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I have Smart Money right now, but only because they were free along with the opening of my brokerage account. Afterwards, I’m not going to pay for them. Online articles are good enough for me and most of them are free.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I think all of these magazines presume a certain level of financial literacy. Consumer Reports and The Bottom Line are the most accessible for those with less literacy, so I liked the idea of having a workshop.
Of the others, I like Kiplinger’s for myself, but there are plenty of people I know who would find it to be too much. Meaning that I agree with the distinction between smart and financially literate.
For the library, I would create some displays that include some easily accessible finance books. These should change around a bit to keep things fresh. As part of this, have some librarian recommendations for retirees, some recommendations for getting out of debt, some recommendations for saving money, etc.
If there’s a budget for reprints, having some targeted articles by Michelle Singletary, Jane Bryant Quinn, and Suze Orman would be good to keep as handouts, and perhaps these would be less intimidating than magazines or books. (Hmmm….I just realized that the main common sense finance gurus I point people towards are all women.)
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:32 am
Another librarian weighing in here…I work in an academic library and have been amazed that even with an economics department, we have so little in our collection regarding PF. We do have the more well-known magazines mentioned in JD’s article, but my sense is that they are mostly read by the staff here and not our students.
I would be particularly interested in magazines or materials that were geared towards those just starting out as adults. As a state school, our students are choosing a more affordable education to begin with and many work part or full time jobs and have outside school responsibilities. What that means is that they are not likely to be thinking about investments at this stage. Any recommendations for magazines or PF books geared for that stage of life would be appreciated.
This post really points to a real opportunity in publishing. I like the idea of a GRS magazine!
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:22 am
I’m a personal fan of SmartMoney. And there are dozens of great financial blogs out there too which can provide advice on a more regular basis.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
I like Money the best on your list. I have to disagree with your assessment… I think it’s one of the least investment centric out there. I recently tried Kiplinger’s and am thinking of subscribing to that once my current money magazine subscription ends.
I had a subscription to Smart Money and thought that was too investment centric. I see money magazine’s investment articles focused more toward 401k or retirement in general, more funds oriented. Smart money was too focused on individual stocks for my taste. I’m sure I would feel differently if I had discretionary cash with which to invest.
Consumer Reports is an awesome magazine, but I simply don’t buy enough stuff to make a subscription worth while….
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Kiplingers all the way. I love the mix of finance and real living.
I find Money to be generic and repetitive and kicked that one to the curb years ago.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
My top picks for financial magazines would be:
Entrepreneur
Fast Company
I realize that Entrepreneur isn’t really a financial magazine but, they do a great job with articles dealing with running a business & all business is money.
I’ve read others & I’m considering Success; any comments?
Thanks,
Darrell
http://www.AlwaysMakingMoney.com
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Actually, I just remembered a magazine I really like best for overall world events and putting finance in a global perspective — The Economist.
They give me the best mega-trends by showing the interconnections of world news around finance. So it functions as Newsweek/Time meets Kiplinger’s/WSJ.
In part based on the trends reported by The Economist, my husband and I rearranged our portfolio last fall to reduce stock exposure lower than what is suggested for our age profile.
While they’re more rah-rah free market capitalism than I am usually, I find they almost always give me enough information that I can disagree with their conclusions even while being educated by their article.
I can’t think of any American publication that routinely allows me to do that; they almost always have too much of a bias in what information they give in the first place.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
As far as I can tell, the AAII Journal is actually available as a PDF for free online. That’s a price point I can get behind. There’s also an RSS feed for the journal which will remind you when each issue has been released.
Alternately, if you’re looking for a hard-core finance magazine, I quite enjoy Barrons. It’s not personal finance, but it does give you a very good sense of the market and what’s going on in that world.
Finally, I second Shelly on The Economist.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
To start off, I am a 21 year old Finance Major. My question is, does anyone feel that it is a necessity that I get a subscription to a finance oriented magazine?
September 25th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
This was a very good post. I agree with your main critique of the big 3. there really seems to be a void for just what you suggested. My favorite would have to be Bottom Line Personal
September 25th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Shelly Says:
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Actually, I just remembered a magazine I really like best for overall world events and putting finance in a global perspective — The Economist.
—
I guess I haven’t read The Economist as I should. I’m more of an ROI guy; if I spend my time reading a magazine, book or watch a show I want a return for my time.
Macroeconomic theories & what’s going on in Pakistan doesn’t really affect 95% of my business.
What I’m looking for is great insides like learning about Mint.com & how it competes with Quicken & why as an entrepreneur I need to switch to it.
I need marketing tips & smart money tips, not mild geo-political lessons.
Darrell
http://www.AlwaysMakingMoney.com
September 25th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I worked at the public library here in Tucson for three years, and I worked in a variety of demographics; a community library in the projects, the downtown main library, and a library on the east side of town that was split blue/white collar. In all places Consumer Reports was one of our most checked out magazines; you might consider another subscription, or an online subscription for those who read on the Internet in the library. We had both, and both were immensely popular.
I also think The Economist is a good choice, simply because it has a lot of “big picture” information that is really interesting, and people who are just learning economics can sometimes understand an overall picture before the details are meaningful. So, I think it is a lot more accessible.
I have looked and looked for a periodical that would be suitable for people who are just starting out or who are poor and need more information on debt reduction than on investing (primarily for my parents and for myself) but I have yet to find such a thing. An option you might look into would be children’s magazines. Whenever I find a subject difficult, I go to the children’s section and often find more accessible content there. If there is something out there for children/teens, then you might find it would circulate, even in an adult section — particularly if it is tastefully done (preferably not in hot pink or neon orange!)
Good luck with your search, and I hope you report back what you decide.
P.S. J.D., I too think a Get Rich Slowly magazine would be fantastic. Let me know if you need an editor! *wink*
October 1st, 2008 at 5:53 pm
The Federal Reserve of New York has put together “comic books” on the fundamental principals of money and economics. They are free and would be a great addition to any library. Perfect for high school kids, and in-depth enough that even an economist could learn something from them. Can get them from their website.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Another vote for Black Enterprise!!! For those looking for a personal finance magazine that has interesting articles for everyone, from every economic background, it is an excellent periodical to read. Articles are not geared solely to African-Americans, as we ALL seem to share similiar financial issues, ie. getting out of debt, purchasing a new home, saving for retirement (realistically). I would encourage anyone to keep an open mind and take a look at this magazine.