Morningstar premium membership: Who's got it?

[Keyboard Ninja]

Is it worth buying? I'm reading their 2005 Guide to Mutual Funds now, and I'm thinking it might be wise to invest $10.25/month (3 year membership) into my education on stuff like this.

I am pretty much starting off at the bottom, but I'm curious to know if any of you have the membership and has it helped you in anyway? I'm thinking about maybe adding a few stocks to my portfolio since they seem pretty cheap (GE, LQDT and CFC for starters).

I can think of plenty of worse things to blow my money on, but I am having a hard time coming up with any positive things to spend $369.

[kumquat]

How about $369 worth of VTI (or similar)?

[jIMOh]

I believe I have a free membership because I have more than 100k invested with T Rowe Price.

[clifp]

I have been a member for a couple of years and been pretty happy by the service. I also subscribe to their dividend and stock investor newsletter which are cheaper with a premium membership.

I have found that you get the best deals with web membership when you sign up, cancel and then let them give you a special price. I believe that I spent $89 for my membership last year.

[Keyboard Ninja]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp I have found that you get the best deals with web membership when you sign up, cancel and then let them give you a special price. I believe that I spent $89 for my membership last year.

That's actually a great idea. I'm still learning so I doubt I'll have much use for the website before my 14day trial period expires. How long did it take for you to get the special price?

[Keyboard Ninja]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kumquat How about $369 worth of VTI (or similar)?

I have no clue on what VTI is.

[Jeremy]

I'm a subscriber, although I treat the subscription fee as a business expense. But I do think that a lot of the information is very helpful. Sure, you can do without it and find good information elsewhere, but it is up to you whether or not you get your money's worth from it.

If you have the time, you can also take the Morningstar education classes online for free, and once you build up enough credits, you can earn a 60-day premium membership: Investing Education & Classes: Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds & Portfolio Building

Not only will you brush up on your investing knowledge through the courses, but you'll get a few months of their service for free. That might be enough time to help you determine whether or not it is worth paying for in the future.

[JohnDoe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp I believe that I spent $89 for my membership last year.

That's about the price that fido account holders get it for.

[clifp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keyboard Ninja That's actually a great idea. I'm still learning so I doubt I'll have much use for the website before my 14day trial period expires. How long did it take for you to get the special price?

I am afraid I don't remember. But I think if you call up to cancel after your 14 day period, and talk to a live human been complain about the price odds are good they'll offer a deal... Never hurts to ask.

I think I maybe in the minority but I found their newsletters quite useful. They are far far better than the Motley fool letters and much cheaper.

[LOL!]

Save your money. There's nothing useful there that you can't get for free. For example, you can sign up at TRowePrice for free and use the M* PortfolioManager and Portfolio X-ray (more features than the free instant x-ray on the M* site).

[rs0460a]

I have it (for the last few years) with the Fidelity discount.

Use it every day, and find value in the couple of $ it costs me each week. Of course, maybe since I'm retired I may look at it as "entertainment ".

Anyway, it's in my budget (I'm anal ) and will continue to get it in the future.

I've found it a good tool to "teach" my DW about our portfolo, beyond just the style box. Showing her where our investments are "in the world", showing our portfolio mutual fund expenses (real eye opener!), ROA, ROE, EPS growth, and current yield, along with how we "size up" to other portfolio models gives her more knowledge and ease of information gathering than what you can get "for free". Of course, you could possibly do extracts and Excel formulas to get the same info, but for the price, I'll let others "do the math".

Just as an example, she (along with everybody else) was complaining about the price of fuel. She complained that somebody is making a lot of $$$. When I showed her that our holdings in a "top oil company" was held by six different funds (by multiple fund companies) by simply doing the "stock intersection" on M*, she saw that she (may?) be getting some return on all the money she's putting into her car gas tank.

Again, most folks could probably get away with some of the "free stuff" on other sites, but the M* site has a lot of information (and 7 different premium tools that you can't get without the subscription) that IMHO is a "cheap price".

Nope, don't work for M* ....

Just a "satisfied customer"...

- Ron