Best Sunday Papers for Finance

[Deleted User] · 2 July 2006 at 11:34AM

Hi all.

Any views on which of the Sunday papers gives the best coverage of personal finance

? Not too specialised - just the kind of info/background that would be useful to a relative newbie, but one who wanted to find out a bit more than the "best savings account".

I'm trying to raise my knowledge levels on finance/markets generally -over the next couple of years, when I will be trying to give my kids a better head start on their financial education than I got as a youngster (I got none:eek: !), I need to be sure that they will believe me and that what I tell them is based on the best infomation I can get.

Cheers

WR

cheerfulcat · 2 July 2006 at 12:00PM

Hi, Wild_Rover,

The Sunday Telegraph is always worth a read. The Guardian is also worth a look. For more than just the basics you need a specialist magazine/website or a few good books.

dunstonh · 2 July 2006 at 12:21PM

Savings accounts data is pretty good but try to ignore investment articles. They tend to over simplify things and use past performance too much. Also, there have been times certain newspapers favour their advertisers products.

Zebra · 2 July 2006 at 12:34PM

Try some free magazines.

Money Observer

What Investment

I signed up for a free copy of What Investment a few months ago, and have received one every month since.

bristol_pilot · 2 July 2006 at 1:12PM

The most money-saving paper is one that someone else has bought. I cut out buying regular papers years ago, it's easy to spend £50-£300 a year on them. I like the coverage in The Times money section which comes out on a Saturday.

[Deleted User] · 2 July 2006 at 1:52PM

Know how you feel - we actually stopped buying papers about 9 months ago - we used to get them delivered - they would sit in my briefcase all day, and sometimes only come out the next morning to make room for the next one. Mrs Wild Rover paid the paper bill and hardly ever saw them.

We now look at the news on line, but the one I used to buy, "The Scotsman", makes you pay up a subscription fee to look at it online. I suppose other will too otherwise they'd go bust.

I know that I'll have to spend to accumulate the knowledge that I want; I'm just trying not to get analysis paralysis by spending too much time and money on research at the expense of "doing", hence asking for advice from the more experienced. There are a lot of magazines availble, and the daily/Sunday press have sections of varying size and detail. If there are any that folk think would be particularly useful, or have used themselves and found to be more useful than others I'd appreciate a steer:T.

I have also only recently started looking at The Motley Fool site, which looks good - I like the "Todays Stories" section. At the end of the day, if sites like MSE, TMF and others can provide the information, we might be able to keep away from the papers and magazines altogether.

You might gather that I am not altogether sure about sources of info, but as the longerst journey starts with a single step I'll have to start somewhere!

Cheers.

WR

mattbass · 2 July 2006 at 2:33PM

The Mail on sunday has a financial mail pull out which can be quite good.

dunstonh · 2 July 2006 at 2:45PM

The Mail is probably the worst offender for information being used incorrectly, supporting advertisers and relying on past performance.

They were advocating people using tech stocks after they had already gone up. Anyone following the Mail's advice would need around 900% growth from their current position just to get their money back. They also compared tech stocks to corporate bonds and how much better tech stocks had performed. No mention of the massive risk difference between the very low risk corporate funds to the very very high risk tech funds. There are more but those two in particular were very bad.

The Mail is a haven for disgruntled individuals and it plays to them perfectly. You cannot fault them for their presentation for their target market. You can fault the information and how it is presented though.

cheerfulcat · 2 July 2006 at 3:14PM

I'm afraid I have to agree with dh on the Mail; I have seen some very bad , not to mention factually incorrect, advice there. They have also been known to print rumours as truth, only to have to retract them. Not to be relied upon, IMHO.

schiff · 2 July 2006 at 7:16PM

"The Mail is a haven for disgruntled individuals"

dunstonh - that's a brilliant description!

I hate, loath and detest the Mail (for everything, not just money matters) but my middle class friends absolutely swear by it. One said to me once: "It
says things we feel inside" - which matches what you said to a T!

If you tried telling them that their relationship with the Mail was exactly like the plebs with the Mirror, they'd have a fit! (does that sound snobby?!?)

Excuse the OT.

ReportInvestor · 2 July 2006 at 10:03PM

mattbass wrote:

The Mail on sunday has a financial mail pull out which can be quite good.

I agree. This is in another world compared to the rest of the rag & usually worth a read.

The PF team is well established, well connected & well qualified in Financial Advisor Certificates. There doesn't seem to be the rapid staff turnover there is at some other newspapers. The PF editor regularly gets top industry recognition in awards.

Financial Mail will tend to highlight things like 7% commission paid to some advisors on some WP bonds, which obviously doesn't endear it to responsible IFAs like dh as it can give IFAs a bad name.

In terms of campaigning, it has been excellent. Recent examples have been over mortgage exit fees and lost pensions.

I can't give any credence to dh's wild claim that its reporting "supports advertisers".

Elsewhere I like the Sunday Telegraph, and also Bill Kay's editoral comments as PF editor at the Sunday Times.

Best Sunday Papers for Finance

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