Gaining financial literacy and building your first portfolio are easier than ever thanks to a range of new investing services. Beginner investors may be especially interested in Finimize and The Motley Fool.
Finimize is a financial literacy app that explains what’s happening in the market in bite-sized chunks. The Motley Fool is an investment advice platform that covers stock news and education, plus offers stock-picking newsletters.
We’ll compare Finimize vs. The Motley Fool to help you decide which of these services is right for your needs.
About Finimize and The Motley Fool
Finimize started in the UK in 2015 as a financial email newsletter before developing into an app-based platform. It now has more than 1 million free and paid subscribers around the world. In addition to all the content on the app, Finimize hosts in-person and live events for its subscribers.
The Motley Fool was founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner. It’s grown into one of the most well-known investment guidance platforms in the world. More than 1 million people pay for its flagship Stock Advisor newsletter, and its website has more than 35 million monthly visitors.
Finimize vs. The Motley Fool: Market News
Finimize’s daily market update is one of the key reasons to use this app. The daily update focuses on two headlines and breaks them down for financial beginners. You get to learn what’s happening and why you should care in 500 words or less. The update is written without jargon and is easily understandable, even for people who are completely new to the world of investing.
The drawback to this approach is that FInimize doesn’t cover everything that’s going on in the market, just a few handpicked stories. If you stick with Finimize every day, you’ll get a pretty good overview of the stock market. But a single daily update won’t give you a very holistic view.
The Motley Fool also provides market news, but it’s tailored toward more active investors. Headlines on The Motley Fool usually seek to explain why a particular company’s stock is rising or falling. The articles are designed to be understandable by the average investor, but they often contain some financial jargon and assume readers have a moderate level of experience with the stock market.
Finimize vs. The Motley Fool: Stock Research and Recommendations
Finimize offers limited stock research in the form of deep dives into specific stocks. These aren’t so much recommendations as articles that focus on a particular stock and explain the basics of its business and what its competitive advantages are. While these deep dives are beginner-friendly, they don’t really provide enough information to make investing decisions.
Finimize also has basic research pages for all US stocks. You can pull up a price chart, key fundamental metrics like price-to-earnings ratio, and sales growth. These metrics on their own can be a good place to start when researching stocks, but once again, Finimize doesn’t offer enough detail to really make informed decisions.
The Motley Fool offers several stock-picking newsletters, including the flagship Stock Advisor newsletter. This includes two new stock picks each month that investors can buy without any additional research required. The Motley Fool includes a brief research report about each stock for investors who want to know more about the recommendations.
Since Stock Advisor launched in 2002, it has outperformed the S&P 500 367% to 116% (as of December 2022). That’s outstanding in the world of investing, which is largely why Stock Advisor has more than 1 million subscribers. The service focuses on long-term growth stocks and advises investors that they should buy and hold stock picks for at least three years.
One great feature of Stock Advisor for new investors is its list of “foundational stocks.” These are stocks that Stock Advisor analysts think every investor should have in their portfolio. If you’re just starting to invest, these stocks are a great first addition to your portfolio.
Finimize vs. The Motley Fool: Financial Education
Finimize excels at financial education for first-time investors or people who just want to learn more about personal finance. The app is packed with guides to everything from how to buy stocks with a brokerage account to how to invest for retirement. The guides usually take 10-20 minutes to read, and they’re in plain English so that anyone can understand them.
🏆 Top Rated Services 🏆
Our team has reviewed over 200 services. These are our favorites:
The Motley Fool also offers financial education and covers many of the same topics as Finimize. You’ll find guides to different types of stocks (like growth and value stocks), investment accounts, retirement strategies, and personal finance. One important difference is that The Motley Fool assumes some familiarity with investing and does use some financial jargon in its guides.
Finimize vs. The Motley Fool: Pricing
A lot of the content on Finimize is free, but you’ll need a paid subscription to access the daily market briefing, individual stock reports, and community features. Finimize Premium costs $99.99 per year, and you can try it out for free for 7 days.
The Motley Fool offers all of its educational resources, market news, and research articles for free. The Stock Advisor stock-picking newsletter costs $199 per year but discounts are often available for your first year.
Which Service is Better?
Whether Finimize or The Motley Fool is better for you depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re completely new to investing and just want to dip your toes into finance, Finimize is a great option. You can get daily briefings on market headlines and read through the guides to start your investment education. Most of the features you’ll benefit from are free.
If you’re aiming to put together an investment portfolio and want concrete recommendations to help you get started, The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor service is invaluable. You can hit the ground running with its recommended starter stocks, then add new stock picks to your portfolio each month. While Stock Advisor does offer research reports, you only need the most minimal investing experience to use this service.
Alternatives to Finimize and The Motley Fool
New investors who want to dive deeper into learning about the market may be interested in Investopedia, which offers a free and comprehensive online investing academy. You’ll learn about not only market basics, but also more advanced topics like fundamental and technical analysis.
Investors who are interested in market news can check out a free news site like CBNC. CNBC covers all of the headlines that can move the markets, and the site’s news articles are generally very approachable.
For stock research, consider a service like Zacks Premium. It offers in-depth research reports, stock ratings, and a list of strong buy stocks for investors to explore. Zacks Premium requires far more self-driven research than Stock Advisor, but you also get access to far more research tools. Zacks Premium costs $249 per year.
Conclusion: Finimize vs. The Motley Fool
Finimize is an investor education app that provides daily market updates and limited stock research. The Motley Fool is a major investment platform that offers stock picking services like Stock Advisor along with market news and educational articles. FInimize is best for new investors who want to learn about the market, while The Motley Fool is best for investors who want ready-to-buy stock recommendations.