A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I was quite active in research of the financial sector. I did well in the market, a buy of Dell Computer corporation in 1996 proved to be quite lucrative. But that has since been liquidated, the money spent, I have closed my E*Trade account and actually did a smart thing in working on getting bad debt under control.
Well it is now 3 years since I went on a rampage destroying credit card debt and closing out my brokerage account, and I am in a position to begin research for investments again, among other things that I recently started thinking of, such as life insurance and home ownership. So I turned to an old friend from those days of yore, The Motley Fool. A great site full of wonderful advice and research tips, and places to get started on your research. But to my partial dismay, to make use of their discussion boards, they now are imposing a fee. Of course I understand that the Gardner's would like to make money also, and I know all too well that running a web based service can be a costly endeavor. But I also am a big fan of only paying for things which I deem particularly desirable, probably quite a "Foolish" attitude. So of course I will do some research, and take advantage of their 30 day free trial, but I also wonder if anyone actually reads this and is willing to respond
So I ask anyone who reads this entry, do you make use of this service? Is it worthwhile? (it is generally inexpensive $75 for a 3 year subscription) Did all the great information that used to occur become less frequent when the Gardner's started charging money? Are there any competing services that have built the requisite community and knowledge base for less (read zero) dollars? I guess while I am at it, are there any other great things I should be tapping for research, "The Investor's Business Daily?" (Kind of pricey) or again to The Fool, the monthly, "The Motley Fool Stock Advisor?"
I plan to keep Logical Disconnect updated with my research and maybe even publish a portion of my portfolio so all my friends can marvel at my financial genius.