Whether you are a beginner millennial investor or a soon-to-be-retired baby-boomer, Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal are the top two investment publications I recommend you read weekly.  In this crazy internet age, we are habitually bombarded with lackluster financial journalism and content.  Unfortunately, the top financial news sources can be difficult to determine due to the enormous amount of clickbait article being churned out daily.  Add the fact that you are an investing beginner, and the problem is exacerbated.

Weed-out the investment publication clickbait 

I can’t tell you how often I see an article like, “Warren Buffetts Two Top Stocks If He Were Young”, or, “Five Reasons Bitcoin Will Make You Rich!”.  These are clickbait articles.  They are designed for one purpose – to drive you to their website so they can get more views and make more money through advertising and/or affiliate sales.

For this reason, it is extremely important to find great investment journalism free from the clickbait garbage.

By the way, it is okay to create articles with flashy titles to attract readership.  It is also okay to incorporate affiliates with proper articles (I’ve done so in this article).

What is not okay is creating thinly guised articles about making quick money in investing, all-the-while profiting off your reader who is trying to learn how to invest.

I’ll end my diatribe of clickbait evil here, but before we get to my recommended investment publications for you to read weekly,  I want you to know that I believe in the olden ways of actually having a publication arrive at your doorstep in a [cough] paper form [gasp].

I know, these words probably confuse you, (Paper form?! The audacity of this guy!)

If you want to be like the Warren Buffetts of the world, why don’t you take a page out of Warren Buffett’s book?  The guy reads SIX newspapers daily.  Can you believe it!

Not many people have time to read ONE new paper, and he reads six.  He puts us all to shame.

I truly believe that reading the best investment publications daily will lead you to the generation of investment ideas; I don’t believe in staring at stock screeners your entire life.

I think you need to engage your mind, you need to connect those synapses, and you need to think creatively.  Reading these two investment publications each week will help keep those synapses active.  I promise you will learn a few things, and the mere process of reading will lead you to creative thinking in a way that watching CNBC and Bloomberg will not.

So, without further ado, here are the two investment publications I believe you should be reading weekly – Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal.

(Oh, and by the way, this fat list is ranked 😉)

Barron’s Vs. The Wall Street Journal

1.  Barron’s

Like I said above, this fat list of the best two investment publications is ranked.  Barron’s is my number one suggestion for anyone interested in learning about investing in the stock market as a beginner.  I don’t care if you are a beginner millennial investor, or a baby boomer investment beginner – Barron’s is the best investment publication for beginners to read each week.

The great thing about Barron’s is its weekly issuing.  Barron’s is not a newspaper publishing daily; the paper comes out once per week.  If you plan to read it from start to finish, you may need a week to do so if you are only reading a small bit per day.

I believe a slight problem with weekly investment news publications is their need to fill pages.  This is understandable, but there is still the existence of a small number of subpar articles due to the need to churn out articles daily.

Barron’s gets to focus on quality journalism without the burden of publishing daily.

Of course, if you are against my view of having a physical paper delivered to your doorstep, you can read Barron’s online when you buy a subscription.  But, seriously, you should have the paper delivered to you.  Sit down in the morning with your coffee and read the paper – it is beautiful.  If you don’t have time in the morning, maybe trade the coffee for a single malt scotch in the evening (you’re a beginner investor, you need to start drinking like a wealthy titan of industry 😊)

It’s good enough for Charlie Munger

Barron’s is a great publication for beginner investors; this can be seen through Warren Buffetts most trusted business partner, Charlie Munger.  Charlie has been an amazing investor in his own right.  He doesn’t have many groundbreaking ideas, but when he does, he has great ideas that have made him a lot of money when it comes to investing.

Munger has said,

“I read Barron’s for 50 years. In 50 years I found one investment opportunity in Barron’s out of which I made about $80 million with almost no risk. I took the $80 million and gave it to Li Lu who turned it into $400 or $500 million. So I have made $400 or $500 million reading Barron’s for 50 years and following one idea. Now that doesn’t help you very much does it? I’m sorry but that’s the way it really happened. If you can’t do it… I didn’t have a lot of ideas. I didn’t find them that easily, but I did pounce on one.”

Source: Study Munger

Don’t plan to find all of your investment ideas from newspaper publications.  Hell, don’t plan on finding investment ideas from anywhere other than your own creative thinking and information distillation.

You should, however, view the action of reading quality investment publications as a way to connect those synapses, which will lead you to the creation of intelligent ideas thanks to reading great journalism.  Barron’s will be a great investment publication for beginner investors to connect those synapses.

2.  The Wall Street Journal

I know this list isn’t exactly describing pioneering investment journalism at the technological cusp of society.  And, you know what, pioneering investment technological journalism is exactly what you DON’T need!

If you think you need the fastest moving information, the quickest trending socially outsourced information, you are doing this all wrong.  Investing is NOT about finding information before other people; that is called trading.  Investing is staying in touch with what is going on in business and industry, and finding potential investments selling at favorable prices.

It’s good enough or Warren Buffett

If there is no other reason to read the Wall Street Journal, it is because Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha himself, reads the Wall Street Journal, each and every day.  If the paper is good enough for him, it should be good enough for you.

Of course, the paper has sections from outside of the investment world as well, from politics to lifestyle.  Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal differ a bit in this regard.  Most of Barron’s will be strictly business and investment news with a little politics sprinkled in from a business perspective.  A larger proportion of the Wall Street Journal will be about topics outside of business and finance.

This is fine, but the real reason to read the WSJ (from a beginner investor perspective), is because they have great journalists and quality content.  You won’t be finding an “Invest in Bitcoin to get rich” article in the WSJ.

While I believe Barron’s will lead you to more unique ideas than the WSJ, the WSJ is still a top news investment publication and will keep you informed with the business world.

Conclusion – The best financial publications

I believe Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal are two of the best financial publications out there.

In my opinion, you should be reading these weekly if you are an investor, or if you are trying to learn more about investing.

The pricing of Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal is quite affordable, and a great attribute is they are easy to cancel at any point in time if you find yourself not reading them.

It is also much more expensive to buy the newspaper each day.

I was paying $5 per Barron’s at my local supermarket, and sometimes I would get there on Sunday and they would be sold out for the entire week.

Thanks to my experience purchasing Barron’s from my local supermarket, I am now a big advocate of purchasing the subscription to save up to 50% or more. If you take advantage of the one year deal above (or the 6-month), you can lower that to $2.50 per paper!

The Wall Street Journal will cost a little more than Barron’s due to its nearly daily delivery.  While you will get more quantity with The Wall Street Journal, I still like Barron’s better if you must choose between the two.

If I was to read two to three investment articles per day, I would choose first to read Barron’s, then to read an article or two from the WSJ.

These two publications are classics and they produce great content.  Use them to your advantage, and they should help with your investment journey!

You can click here to signup for Barron’s.

You can click here to signup for The Wall Street Journal here

If you liked this article, you may like my 2018 robo-advisor review winners 2018’s Best Robo-Advisors In Every. Single. Category.

Or you may enjoy my 11 steps to start investing Beginner Millennial Investing – 11 Steps to Start Investing in the Stock Market.

Disclaimer: These are the ideas and opinions of the author.  The author is not responsible for the actions of those who read the posts on this blog.  Each individual reader has a unique situation and unique needs.  This blog is not intended to solve those unique situations of the readers.  This blog is not liable for decisions made by the readers of this blog.

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