Investment newsletters

My wife and I have successfully paid off all of our college/wedding debt, and our recent waterproofing job on our house (ouch). We've started saving up an emergency fund at Capital One, which is currently earning 4.75% interest. When we have several months of expenses saved up, I want to start investing our money. We also have 401(k)'s and rollover IRA's at Fidelity. I've been looking at some investor newsletters, such as the Fidelity funds newsletter offered by Forbes (Jim Lowell's), (http://www.newsletters.forbes.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Locale=en_US&SiteID=es_764&id=ProductDetailsPage&productID=11092700) or a premium membership at Morningstar. I'm wondering if the consensus is that these products are generally worth it. With most of our investments at Fidelity, picking the right funds is important, and that's what I'm looking for help on.

I do realize there is a lot of free information out there about mutual funds, I'm just wondering if the paid information is worth it or not.

Thanks..

I've been investing in a lot of mutual funds since 1999 when I rolled over a large 401(k) into an IRA. I haven't used any of the paid newsletters. I do have an account at a full-service brokerage so I have a financial advisor who's also keeping an eye on things and occasionally makes recommendations about re-allocation or dropping a bad-performing fund. But generally, I just keep an eye on the performance of each fund relative to its peers and to the market and make only occasional tweaks. My concern about a newsletter is that I'd end up moving in and out of funds on their advice to justify the cost.

Congratulations on the waterproofing! I did that a year before I left my last house and it made a huge difference. A very un-glamorous way to spend money, but no more running down to the basement to see if it needed mopping every time it rained.

I think I need to waterproof mine as well. Less than 6 years old, and I have had leaking/seepage at the windowsills starting last year (possibly problems with the flashing). I caulked a bit last summer, but it gets bad after bad rains (and we've had some bad rains here in Texas lately).

Back on the subject, I have never used any paid newsletters either.

Yes, it did make a big difference in our basement. We had water coming in, as well as shifting in the concrete blocks which could have taken out the wall. Pretty bad. So much for home inspections.

As for the newsletters, I don't have any type of financial adviser, so we're basically on our own. I'm not sure at what point its worth the cost to have an adviser. Saving up an emergency fund, and then starting to invest in non-retirement accounts seems like the most logical thing to do.

Why pay for investment newsletters when there are a slew of them available for free online? I do not see where paying for The Wall Street Journal online is any better than free access to Kiplingers, IBD, Yahoo, The Street, Forbes, Money, etc.

I believe you need a strategy for choosing your investments.
You also need a strategy for selling your investments.
Selecting a particular MF today is OK, but will that MF still be best in the future?
You should have a plan to carry out to get rid of your investments when they are not performing within some range of thier peers.

I do use newsletter, Sound Mind Investing. http://www.soundmindinvesting.com/
I also use Kiplingers, CBS Market Watch, and M*.