When any of us go online in search of investment resources, there’s an embarrassment of riches. There’s also a bunch of nonsense. Having access to reliable information is a necessity if you want to invest wisely and maximize your returns.
The trick is knowing how to separate the good information from the bad. The vetted from the unvetted. The truth from the lies.
BetterInvesting® claims to have the answers. It’s a financial education site where investors who become members can learn about everything related to investing and get details about specific stocks.
The question, of course, is does BetterInvesting® deliver on its promises — and should you spend your money to become a member?
What is BetterInvesting®?
BetterInvesting® has roots that go all the way back to 1940, when Fred Russell, who had recently graduated from college, and several of his friends, organized The Mutual Investment Club of Detroit.
Their goal was to learn about investing, so they could build wealth. Over time, their mission evolved to embrace the financial needs of ordinary people who might need some guidance to invest their money.
The National Association of Investors™ is the parent organization of BetterInvesting® and a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. To learn more about the NAIC, check out Investopedia’s review of the organization.
BetterInvesting®’s mission is to teach members foundational investment principles to help them become successful, lifelong stock investors.
They pursue their mission by providing online stock research and analysis tools, investor publications, investment classes, and more.
Pro Tip:
BetterInvesting® is a unique financial education membership site that provides a ton of useful resources to members. Click here to get started on your membership today!
What is the BetterInvesting® Method?
When BetterInvesting® talks about foundational investment principles, what they mean are the principles articulated in their method.
- Choose an amount to invest regularly, regardless of swings in the market. This is a principle that can help investors maintain a “lower and more favorable average cost per share of stock.”
- Reinvest all earnings. It’s the best way to leverage the power of compounding.
- Invest in high-quality growth stock. In other words, buy stock in companies that increase their earnings consistently over time.
- Diversify your portfolio. When you spread your investment out over different companies, sizes, and industries, you won’t risk too much if one investment loses value quickly.
These are undeniably basic principles, but they’re essential ones. Following them makes it less likely that investors will experience major losses or make rookie mistakes.
BetterInvesting® Features
BetterInvesting® has an array of features that are designed to educate investors about investing and help them choose stocks to buy. As you’ll see below, members at the Individual Plus level get access to more features than those at the Individual Core level.
Stock Selection Guide
The Stock Selection Guide is BetterInvesting’s signature investment tool. It includes an explanation of the BetterInvesting Method, reporting, and comparison to benchmarks.
The SSG comes in two tiers, CoreSSG and SSGPlus. With the Individual Core Membership, you’ll get access to CoreSSG, and you can upgrade to the Plus membership to get access to SSGPlus.
Stock Comparison Guide
The Stock Comparison Guide is an online investing tool that’s useful for investors who want to view side-by-side comparisons of stocks in a particular industry or compare stocks on their watchlist.
With a Core membership, you can compare stocks to 25 benchmarks. If you upgrade to a Plus membership, you’ll have 46 benchmarks to choose from.
Screening
With BetterInvesting’s Screening tool, it’s easy to compare potential investments against companies in the Morningstar database. If you want more information, check out our review of Morningstar.
There are 13 criteria in total, including 6 you can access with the Core membership and an additional 7 with the Plus membership.
First Cut Stock Reports
First Cut Stock Reports are available in both the Core and Plus memberships. First Cut Stock Studies are created by members.
The benefit of these reports and studies is that you can use them to compare stocks and make your own decisions about what to buy based on what you learn.
Pro Tip:
BetterInvesting® is a unique financial education membership site that provides a ton of useful resources to members. Click here to get started on your membership today!
Online Courses
One of the newest BetterInvesting features is what will become a series of investing courses. As of the time we’re writing this, there’s one course listed, but BetterInvesting says they’re still building out the courses and we expect there’ll be more soon.
BetterInvesting Magazine
All members of BetterInvesting get a subscription to BetterInvesting Magazine, which is available in both digital and print formats.
The magazine provides investor information and education appropriate for investors at all levels. You’ll find articles written by investment experts, including Chartered Financial Analyst® charterholders and Certified Financial Planner® professionals.
Video Library
BetterInvesting has a library of 100+ educational videos. Some are available to the general public via their YouTube channel.
Core members get limited access to the paywalled videos, while Plus members get full and unlimited access.
Investment Clubs
One of the things that truly sets BetterInvesting apart from other investment education sites is their investment clubs. Here’s what BetterInvesting says about investment clubs.
A stock investment club is made up of a group of people who come together to learn how to invest in the stock of good quality companies, pool small amounts of money to build a profitable stock portfolio, and apply that learning to their personal stock investments.
We should note here that some SEC regulations may apply to investment clubs.
Any paying member can start or join an investment club. You can watch a free video about investment clubs here.
Pro Tip:
BetterInvesting® is a unique financial education membership site that provides a ton of useful resources to members. Click here to get started on your membership today!
How Much Does a BetterInvesting® Membership Cost?
BetterInvesting has two tiers of individual memberships. Both include all standard features. To recap, these are:
- Stock selection & analysis tools
- Stock Selection Guide, aka SSG®
- Subscription to BetterInvesting® Magazine
- Access to First Cut Stock Reports and First Cut Stock Studies
- Admission to live online classes
- Subscription to BetterInvesting® Weekly Newsletter
- Access to all free and some premium educational videos in the Video Learning Library
- Member discounts
- Local chapter support & training
- Investment Club Connect
Additional features and benefits are available depending on which membership level you select.
Individual Core Membership
The Individual Core Membership includes additional features, as follows.
- Limited access to over 80 educational videos in the Video Learning Library, including archived webinars
- Step-by-step SSG methodology
- SSG visual analysis
- Online Stock Comparison Guide (SCG) to compare stocks against 25 key benchmarks
The cost for the Individual Core Membership is $10 per month, billed annually for a total of $120. You can get a discount if you choose a multi-year membership. A two-year membership is $229, and a three-year membership is $342, for a savings of 4.5% for two years and 5% for three years.
Individual Plus Membership
The Individual Plus Membership includes all of the standard BetterInvesting® features, everything in the Individual Core Membership, plus the following things.
- Full access to more than 100 educational videos in the Video Learning Library, including the Buy the Best Series (how to use the SSG and more) and Special Programs, including education related to red flags not included in the SSG.
- Unlimited use of all BetterInvesting® online investment tools, including SSGPlus, comparison to 46 key benchmarks using SCGPlus, visual analysis for 19 data items on the SSG graph, Ticker Heat Map, quarterly data, bank analysis data, access to Core SSG and SSGPlus, as well as additional portfolio management reports.
The cost for the Individual Plus Membership is $12.08 per month, billed annually for a total of $145. There are discounts for multi-year membership as follows: two-year membership for $283, and a three-year membership for $414. That’s a 2.5% discount for two years and a 4.5% discount for three years.
Conclusion
BetterInvesting® is a unique financial education membership site that provides a ton of useful resources to members. You can use their online tools to research and compare investments, learn investment basics, get advanced investment tips, and become part of an investment club.
The investment clubs are what set BetterInvesting apart from other sites we’ve reviewed. For as little as $10 per month, you can learn about investing, join a club, and get insights and advice you couldn’t get on your own.
