The Motley Fool is the name of a financial website that began in 1993, although it is now far more. From its humble origin as the idea of two brothers in Virginia, the Motley Fool has turned into a multimedia financial services concern which gets its message out via its web sites in the USA, the UK and Australia; books, newspaper articles, TV appearances and newsletters.
The blurb on their web site says that the firm took its name from Shakespeare, who said that the king’s fools were permitted to tell him anything without being scared of of being beheaded, as long as it was in an entertaining style. The Motley Fool might have lost its head.
For whilst their personal investing advice is as helpful as anything else you will perhaps read anywhere, the comedy can become a little thin.
However, the advice is sound and the structure of the site with its discussion boards leads to many exciting, topical debates by knowledgeable (and much less well-informed) investors all keen to put in their two penn’orth.
There is info on most aspects of personal finance on the site, ranging from advances to investments like stocks, shares, bonds and mutual funds.
The web site is full of with hints and tips on how to make and save money. You will find advice on things like finance software, dividends, stocks, and how much you ought to become saving from your monthly earnings.
There are regular features on other aspects too like which is the best electric or gas company, getting out of debt and credit repair. Another feature is their interest in stocks, shares and mutual funds.
The team at Motley Fool are administering a ‘million dollar portfolio’ of their own real money on line and members of the website are allowed to watch, talk about and duplicate every transaction.
Only a certain number of people are permitted in at any one time, so you might find this feature closed to you, but you can put your name down to be told when a space comes up.
In the meanwhile, you could become a member of one of the CAPS Contests which mock up gambling on the stock exchange with imaginary money in mock portfolios. That is, you play with make-believe money, but the prizes are real enough.
These contests are immense fun and the best fashion of being able to learn about the stock exchange and market movements without it ruining you.
All in all, it worth adding the Motley Fool to your list of Financial Favourites because there is such a lot of free financial knowledge there which seems to come from the heart of the managing, owner brothers and their colleagues. Sure, they receive commissions on everything and attempt to sell a pro version of the site, but there is still a lot of free info there too.
One word of warning however: whilst the financial advice and suggested links are pretty decent, do not go there expecting to have a belly laugh, because the humour wears rather thin after about five minutes.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a range of topics, but is now involved with Motley Fool. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Mutual Funds