Kiplinger's Personal Finance

I have subscribed to Kiplinger's for the past year, but chose not to re-subscribe for next year. I subscribed because I was looking for something new to read on the subway after SmartMoney magazine stopped publishing in 2012. I read Kiplinger's almost cover-to-cover each month, and my conclusion is that it's a good personal finance magazine, but not what I was looking for as an investor.As far as the personal finance magazines go, Kiplinger's feels more advanced than the novice-level Money, but not as advanced as the Economist or Barron's. The target audience is someone who is slightly more ahead-of-the-game than the average person; someone who has an IRA or 401k and is trying to save for retirement, but looking for improvement. When politics and finance do inevitably intersect, it's middle-of-the-road independent, not conservative like many other finance magazines. Each issue has three main sections: Investing (mostly about mutual funds), Money (retirement/education planning, credit cards, taxes, etc.), and Living (travel, tech, cars, etc.). A lot of their content ends up for free on their website a few weeks after publication.I read these magazines primarily for investing advice and ideas, and I didn't like that Kiplinger's Investing section focuses almost entirely on mutual funds. They talk very little about investing in individual stocks, which is what I used to like about SmartMoney. There's one very good column every month that I like by Kathy Kristof about stock investing, but most of the investing stories are macro-economy and mutual funds. But for the majority of Americans who are investing through mutual funds, they do have good advice.

Resubscribed recently after a gap of few years. I don't know why I did that, but did that. I was not a fan earlier and it generally has some superficial articles - nothing in-depth or thoughtful. But used to have few useful information spread out hear and there. Not I got two editions so far, I can tell you it has become outright useless. I could skim through and throw it away in 15 minutes. For some reason if you buy/subscribe, one cautions, most investment suggestions in the magazine for mutual funds, brokerages etc are institutional friendly and not investor friendly - meaning I found them to drive us towards expensive options.

This is the best Personal finance magazine out there. Straight forward advice on how to save and invest your money. It does not have the liberal political junk that plagues Money magazine these days. I look forward to reading it every month.

Seems to be geared for retired or folks nearing retirement. Then again, I'm 35 and reading this magazines about investing!Solid advice, won't steer you too wrong. Better advice: visit Bogleheads.org

I did not expect a magazine on a dry semi-boring subject to be funny at times. The advise is practical and applicable. You are not wasting time on processing volume of irrelevant info like in Wall Street Journal. Strangely Money magazine I subscribed to same time as Kiplinger's did not arrive yet this year, but I did get 2 Kiplinger's issues already.

This is pretty good for a financial magazine. Personally I wish it didn't spend 75% of every issue discussing stocks and the market and mutual funds. I am at a point where I want to be truly diversified (i.e. real estate, etc.) and this isn't very helpful for that at all. I wish they would have an entire issue on how to truly diversify and save for retirement.

Love Kiplinger's magazine. I have already gotten great advice from articles that have helped educate me to make wise investments and moves with my money. Very insightful for those of you who enjoy learning about personal finance and investments.

It definitely gets my brain going with investing, and ensuring I am putting away money for retirement, and making me aware of investment tools out there. I find their Kiplinger's 25 mutual funds to be a great short list to begin investment strategies, and familiarizing yourself with a rounded portfolio. With that said, don't just buy what they suggest. Do a few minutes of research, and make sure you agree.