Top Personal Finance Magazines

Contributed by mm | March 18, 2005 10:20 PM PST

Even though the internet (PFBlog included) is providing a wealth of information on any personal finance topics, personal finance magazines still has irreplacable value as it provides more organized information with more credibility.

You cannot get much wrong by following the crowd. According to data compiled by Media Distribution Services, the top selling personal finance magazines are:

Publication Name/# of Subscribers

Money: 1,945,265
Bottom Line Personal: $1,500,000
Kiplinger's Personal Finance: 1,072,471
Smart Money: 822,436
Better Investing: 326,804
Barron's: 299,673
Money Making Opportunities: 180,393
Financial Times (US): 140,136
Institutional Investor: 100,601
Working Money: 65,060

Personally, I am a loyal reader of Money, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Smart Money. If you ask me for recommendations, Money should be a good starting point if you just start to explore the world of personal finance. If you have more time or fall in love with personal finance topics, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and SmartMoney are equally informative and extremely helpful.

All magazines offer at least one trial issue so you can taste and decide which is the best for you if you have limited bandwidth. I just ordered 6-issue free trial from Bottom Line Personal -- I am interested to find out why it can attract that many subscribers.

PFBlog Bonus:

1. Never order your magazine directly from the magazine site or leaflets attached to the magazine. Most times best deals are not best deals at all.

2. Try MagazinePriceSearch.com to get some of the best deals (PFBlog report here). Currently the best deals are $14.95 for 13 issues of Money, $5.50 for 12 issues of Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and $5.40 for 12 issues of Smart Money.

3. Some great magazine deals can be found at eBay, too; just make sure you are dealing with sellers of good reputation.

This Post Has Received 4 Comments. Share Your Opinions Too.

jim Commented on March 19, 2005

Sometimes you can get the magazines for free if you look around the internet and are lucky. Somehow I get all the financial magazines for free by doing just that, without any junk mail either.

Omar Commented on March 19, 2005

Money magazine can be found for $9.95 for 13 issues from a link at DigitalMoneyMag.com (the banner on the upper-right) or from the subscription link on their home page ( http://money.cnn.com/magazine/ ).

Also, via DigitalMoneyMag.com, you can read Money's April issue for free (thanks to jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity for that info).

MrsB Commented on March 21, 2005

Or you can always check out your local library and borrow them for free. :-) As someone who is just starting to find a more firm financial footing, I find Money to be just right. It doesn't talk down and it explains things in a clear, concise manner.

Jonathan@MyMoneyBlog Commented on March 22, 2005

Good list, thanks! I've actually never heard of Bottom Line Personal. I subscribe to Kiplinger's and Forbes. SmartMoney would probably be next on my list if I had more time to actually read them all.

Jonathan@MyMoneyBlog