By Lincoln Olson
Reviewed by Thomas J. Brock
Thomas J. Brock
CFA, CPA
Thomas is a well-rounded financial professional, with over 20 years of experience in investments, corporate finance, and accounting. His investment experience includes oversight of a $4 billion portfolio for an insurance group. Varied finance and accounting work includes credit analyses, the development of multiyear financial forecasts, and the evaluation of capital budgeting proposals and investment opportunities. Beyond the corporate setting, he’s assisted individuals and businesses of all sizes with accounting, financial planning, and investing matters; lent his financial expertise to a few well-known websites; and tutored students via a few virtual forums.
Learn about our editorial policies
Our editorial team uses a strict editorial review process to compile all reviews, research, and evaluations of any kind. Our company, WallStreetZen Limited, is supported by our user community and may receive a small commission when purchases are made through partner links. Commissions do not affect the opinions or evaluations of our editorial team.
Researching stocks can be exhausting.
If you’re a fundamental investor, there’s a lot that goes into your analysis.
And after all that work you never know for sure if your research will prove to be profitable.
Investing is a long-term game, one that can play out over 5-10 years or longer. If you’re earning below average returns for that long you may never catch up to your peers who just simply bought S&P500 index funds.
Fortunately, The Motley Fool makes it easy for you to benefit from the research its teams of professional financial analysts are working on every day.
In this Motley Fool Stock Advisor review, I’ll answer the question “Is a Motley Fool subscription worth it?”
Spoiler alert: It is.
SPECIAL OFFER: Get Stock Advisor for just $1.90 per week*
* Promotional price for new members only. Discount based on current list price of $199/year. Membership will renew annually at the the current list price.
What is The Motley Fool?
Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through its website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services.
The Motley Fool is not a brokerage account. Rather, it has 2 primary investing services: Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers.
I’ll be reviewing Stock Advisor, its flagship membership product, in this article, but if you’re interested in its counterpart here’s my Motley Fool Rule Breakers review.
As with my other premium-service review articles, I’ll score The Fool based on its Accessibility, Quality of Research/Analysis, and Price, then cover its key features in my review of Motley Fool Stock Advisor.
Is Motley Fool Stock Advisor Worth It in ?
The Bottom Line: Stock Advisor is well worth the money. If you’re looking for a service with an exceptional, S&P500-beating track record and can stomach the volatility of growth stocks, it’s almost a no-brainer.
Accessibility: 4.5/5
Quality of Research/Analysis: 4.5/5 (who can argue with those returns?)
Price: 4.5/5 (with the link below, get 1 year for a special intro rate, after which your subscription will renew at the regular price of $199)
There’s also a 30-day membership-fee-back guarantee.
Get the Special Offer!
Key Features of Stock Advisor
Motley Fool Stock Advisor is The Motley Fool’s flagship product. It is an investment newsletter that delivers 2 ticker picks each month to its members (and ranks #2 on my list of the best investment newsletters and best stock advisor websites).
With a subscription, you’ll gain access to the service’s recommendations and other resources. Let’s jump into the main features of a membership.
Performance
We’ve all seen The Motley Fool’s ads covering its fantastic returns like this one:
Whatever the strategy for finding investments set to vastly outperform the S&P500, it’s safe to say The Fool’s strategy works.
At the end of the day what you’re paying for is stock picks, and Stock Advisor selections have easily beaten the S&P 500 over time.
How much money would you pay to have your investment account look like the chart above? $99? $199? Or WAY more?
Yeah, me too.
Investing Philosophy
Before diving into the picks you’ll be getting with this service it’s important to cover The Motley Fool Investing Philosophy. If you can’t stick to these 6 rules, you may want to pass on this service.
- Buy 25+ companies over time (in an equal-weighted portfolio)
- Hold stocks for 5+ years
- Add new savings regularly
- Hold through market volatility
- Let winners run
- Target long-term returns
Members who stick to The Fool principles and give the selections the time they need to pay off have been handsomely rewarded.
Stock Picks
Stock Advisor will provide you with 2 picks each month with a detailed report on each of those picks.
These reports are the distilled version of the investment team’s analysis on each recommendation. If you’re looking to enhance your investment acumen and want to learn what to look for when identifying potential investments, this analysis is invaluable and can help you make smarter decisions with your money.
The performance of these monthly stock picks is pretty impressive:
The Motley Fool team has an eye for spotting potential investments that are poised to double, triple, or more. Buying into just a few of these huge winners throughout your investing lifetime can exponentially increase your portfolio value.
While a major component of the investing philosophy is to let winners run, they will send you an alert if they ever think it’s time to sell.
Worth noting: The Motley Fool doesn’t try to time the market – the investing philosophy is to buy-and-hold through ups and downs in the market.
And if some of their previous recommendations are beaten down to prices where they once again look attractive, the Stock Advisor team has no problem re-recommending previous stock picks. The best investment may be one you already own (How do you know what stocks to buy?).
Beyond the monthly stock recommendations, you’ll also get access to:
- Best Buys Now – 10 timely buys chosen from more than 300 securities
- Starter Stocks – recommendations for new and experienced investors to add to their portfolios
- All Previous Picks – See the complete list of previous recommendations and their performance data
Other
Beyond the newsletter and actual recommendations, your subscription also gives you access to:
Community Support
This is a place for investors just like you (and some with much more experience) to share ideas and ask questions.
Bonus Reports
Occasionally, the Motley Fool team releases bonus content with additional analysis on past recommendations, macro trends, or investing education. It’s a great value-add that doesn’t cost you any extra money.
My Opinion
Here’s the bottom line of this review: If I wasn’t a total investment nerd, Stock Advisor would be the one subscription I bought and used forever.
The returns speak for themselves, and the fact that I could be a total newbie (and never have to learn a thing if I didn’t want to) and have exposure to those long-term returns would make the service an easy decision. Plus, the rates are reasonable — you get a lot for your money.
That said, I would want to round out a decent portion of my portfolio with a U.S.-focused ETF for easy diversification and peace of mind (my 2 recommendations are the S&P 500, ticker: SPY, or the Total Domestic Market, ticker: VTI).
Beyond Stock Advisor: Should You Upgrade Your Motley Fool Plan?
We’ve established that I’m a big fan of Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor. But what about Motley Fool’s other plans? The bottom line is that I believe they have value, if they align with your portfolio size and investment goals.
Here’s a quick rundown of the other services Motley Fool offers and who I think they’re best for:
Motley Fool Epic
- Cost: $499 / year (Just $319 using this link)
- Suggested Portfolio size: $50,000
- Picks per month: 5
- Best for: Investors who want more stock picks and data than Stock Advisor offers; investors who loved the formerly stand-alone subscription, Rule Breakers.
Motley Fool Epic combines stocks from Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers, Hidden Gems, and Dividend Investor. It’s a significant increase in offerings from Stock Advisor alone; maybe that’s why Motley Fool calls it “The home plate for individual investors, backed by additional stock recommendations, quant analytics, and a toolkit to supercharge your investing journey.”
With a diverse mix of growth, dividend, and under-the radar tools, this service has a lot to offer for investors who may feel limited by Stock Advisor, or like they want to diversify further.
Check out Motley Fool Epic for just $319
Motley Fool Epic Plus
- Cost: $1999 /year
- Suggested portfolio size: $100,000
- Picks per month: 9
- Best for: Serious investors who want access to a greater variety of assets
With Epic plus, you get even more: Additional research and recommendations, covering trends, international, value, options trading, and an introduction to Tom Gardner’s portfolio management. More monthly recommendations across Trends, Value Hunters, and Global Partners. Access to ongoing trades in Options. Plus, one of the big selling points is that you gain access to Tom Gardner’s Moneymakers portfolios (including AI Playbook) backed by The Motley Fool’s own cash.
Check out Motley Fool Epic Plus
Fool Portfolios
- Cost: $3999 /year
- Suggested portfolio size: $250,000
- Picks per month: 11
- Best for: Serious investors who want access to both long-term and short-term investment ideas and want to diversify into cutting-edge technology and digital assets and microcaps.
Building upon everything you get with Epic Plus, with Fool Portfolios you also get full access to Tom G’s suite of portfolios and several portfolios managed by our investors (backed by $30M+ of The Motley Fool’s own cash), and ongoing research and recommendations across microcaps and digital assets. You also get monthly recommendations and rankings across Firecrackers and Digital Explorers and a lot more articles and earnings coverage on an expanded universe of stocks.
Check out Fool Portfolios
Fool One
- Cost: $6,999 / year
- Suggested portfolio size: $500,000
- Picks per month: 11+, plus access to all Motley Fool reports
- Best for: Serious investors who want to take an active role in building their portfolio and want to adopt the latest technologies and network with other like-minded investors.
Here’s the cadillac experience of Motley Fool memberships: You get everything mentioned above, and more. It’s a comprehensive view of all Motley Fool recommendations and research with the One Portfolio, exclusive events, early access to new tools, and wider access to Motley Fool’s Investing Team and the One Portfolio managed by our entire team of investors, quants, and financial planners. Plus, you get early access to new features and tools and access to exclusive live and virtual events.
Final Word
The 6 principles of The Motley Fool’s investing philosophy are a good yardstick for measuring if you will benefit from this newsletter service.
If you’re able to stomach volatility in an equal-weighted portfolio for more than 5 years, there’s an excellent chance your investment in a Stock Advisor subscription will cost a mere fraction of the value you receive.
You’ve seen the performance figures – this is a service that specializes in picking home-run potential investments that have consistently beat the S&P500
Plus, there’s a 30-day membership-fee-back guarantee.
What’s the risk of giving it a chance?
JUST RELEASED: Get the 2 latest picks from Stock Advisor
You should pay for this service if you’re a long-term investor who wants regular picks and can follow The Motley Fool’s investing philosophy.
My only complaint is The Fool email marketing is a bit annoying – but you can simply unsubscribe to the marketing emails like I did.
FAQs:
How much does Motley Fool cost?
A Motley Fool subscription to Stock Advisor costs $99* with the introductory offer above for a limited time.
After your first year, your subscription will renew at the list price, which is currently $199.
The Fool offers other features and services that can be purchased for additional fees.
Is Motley Fool legit?
Yes, The Motley Fool is a premier provider with almost 30 years worth of data showing its outperformance (though past performance is no guarantee of future results).
In my opinion, the Stock Advisor service is the product with by far the best value.
What is Motley Fool Track record?
Created by brothers David and Tom Gardner as a resource to help people attain financial freedom, The Motley Fool has vastly outperformed the S&P 500 since its founding in 1993.
Is the Motley Fool worth it? Is Motley Fool worth it? Is Motley Fool subscription worth it?
Yes, if you can follow The Motley Fool’s investing philosophy, a subscription to Motley Fool Stock Advisor is almost certainly worth the investment. For a relatively small amount of money, you get access to historically S&P500-beating picks, reports, and a robust trading community.
Does the Motley Fool tell you when to sell?
Yes, in the rare instance the Motley Fool team believes you should sell a previous recommendation, they will issue a Sell alert.
Read more: Here’s a comparison I wrote on some of the most popular premium stock subscriptions, Motley Fool vs Zacks vs Morningstar vs Seeking Alpha.
Where to Invest $1,000 Right Now?
Did you know that stocks rated as "Buy" by the Top Analysts in WallStreetZen's database beat the S&P500 by 98.4% last year?
Our September report reveals the 3 "Strong Buy" stocks that market-beating analysts predict will outperform over the next year.
- Share
- Share
- Tweet
About the author
Lincoln Olson
Head of Content
Lincoln is an investor and content marketer. He has worked for financial advisors, institutional investors, and a publicly-traded fintech company. Lincoln holds degrees in Finance, Economics, and Accounting.
