Most of us don’t have time to read The Wall Street Journal cover to cover each morning to stay on top of financial news. And for those looking to learn more about personal finance, the sheer volume of financial podcasts and articles scattered across the Internet raises intimidating questions about where to even begin.
Fortunately, daily and weekly newsletters can keep you informed without a massive time commitment. You get news, tips, and free education delivered straight to your inbox for a quick read over your coffee.
Beyond actively checking the best investment news sites, consider these financial newsletters for fast, timely updates.
Best Financial Newsletters You Should Subscribe To
I follow what I call the “breakfast rule” with financial newsletters: I want to consume all my financial and business news during the time it takes me to eat breakfast, around five minutes.
Fortunately, today’s best financial and business newsletters allow me to do just that. If you subscribe to these financial newsletters, you can too.
One quick tip before we get to the list: Make sure you’re signed up for your online brokerage’s market newsletter, if it has one. (Most do these days.) It’s more likely to come weekly than daily, but it’s likely to be a great resource either way. Ally Invest’s weekly newsletter is one of my top three go-to sources for market news and analysis, for example.
1. Motley Fool Stock Advisor
- Frequency: Weekly
- Cost: $199 per year ($89 per year for new members only)
- Focus: Stock picks, active investing, and beating the market
Among the oldest paid stock-picking newsletters, Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor does precisely that: recommend individual stock picks they believe will outperform the market.
And on average, their picks have done just that since their inception in 2002. And they’d better, given the high subscription cost and low number of picks per month.
On the first and third Thursdays of every month, Stock Advisor emails you with a new stock recommendation. On the second and fourth Thursdays, they send updated lists of their 10 “Best Buys Now” — ongoing stock picks they think will continue to outperform the market.
Previous picks include Netflix, Amazon, Booking.com, and Marvel before Disney acquired it. They also recommend starter stocks as a foundational investment portfolio for new investors with minimal money to invest.
I use Stock Advisor myself and have had positive experiences so far with their stock picks. You have to get over the fact that you won’t be the first person to execute their recommended trade, and the stock often pops between 5% and 15% before you can get to it.
Even so, Stock Advisor chooses stocks based on long-term growth potential. Ignore the sudden spike and invest for the long term.
Despite its role as a stock picking service, Stock Advisor urges a diversified approach to investing. If you don’t own any stocks currently, start with broad index funds before buying individual stocks.
Likewise, only consider shelling out the cash for Stock Advisor if you plan to act on their information. Sitting on the sidelines won’t recover your upfront cost.
Beyond stock picks, The Motley Fool also offers market analysis, trend overviews, and other financial news summaries. Given that Stock Advisor only picks two stocks per month, it takes a broader perspective than the daily movements and trends reported by daily newsletters.
2. Morning Brew
- Frequency: Daily
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Business and financial news
Morning Brew is concise, well curated, and — best of all — delivered with humor and wit.
It’s split into short sections that summarize a larger point then link to where you can read more if you want more details. That format keeps you quickly informed about broader market trends while letting you dive deeper into the stories most interesting to you.
Morning Brew now goes out seven days per week, with a Sunday edition that reads as a deeper essay into the week’s trends. At the beginning of each daily newsletter, they start with a summary of the most important financial news along with an at-a-glance chart of the previous day’s performance of stock indexes, cryptocurrencies, and 10-year Treasury notes.
At the end, there are trivia questions, quizzes, clever GIFs, and one-line links to other interesting stories around the web.
Note that Morning Brew focuses on business and financial news. They also offer more niche newsletters, such as their Marketing Brew, Emerging Tech Brew, and Money Scoop personal finance newsletters.
Read our full Morning Brew review if you’re still not convinced, but I highly recommend it for its brevity, light tone, and comprehensive approach to financial news.
3. The New Paper
- Frequency: Daily
- Cost: $4.99 per month after a seven-day free trial
- Focus: Tech, business, political/world news
Many of the options above claim brevity as a selling point. But The New Paper’s delivery format — text message — all but requires it and lends credibility to their slogan, “The daily news in as few words as possible.”
Once per day, subscribers receive a text message summarizing the day’s top business, technology, and current events news. The New Paper includes links for further reading, so you can dive deeper into the stories that intrigue you most.
And it’s hard to resist their rallying cry that today’s “news is broken.” The New Paper points a critical finger at clickbait push notifications, sensationalist headlines, and the severe slant in one direction or the other endemic among most media outlets.
As part of their mission, not just a marketing tagline, they commit to simply delivering only the basic facts of each story. Readers can jump back into the echo chambers by reading more on their slanted media outlet of choice.
While not free, as so many of their competitors, the outlet does offer a seven-day free trial to make sure you appreciate their succinct, facts-only summary style. As they point out, you’re not likely to forget you subscribed because you get a daily text message.
4. Robinhood Snacks
- Frequency: Daily (weekdays only)
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Business and financial news
Following a similar model as Morning Brew, Robinhood Snacks delivers “[t]he 3-minute newsletter with fresh takes on the financial news you need to start your day.” From its light tone to its broad business scope, it occupies the same niche.
But while Morning Brew only exists as a media company primarily fueled by ad revenue, Robinhood Snacks merely serves as the communication arm of brokerage firm Robinhood, a low-cost commission-free online broker.
Robinhood brings the heft of a full investment brokerage with the wit and scrappy attitude of a startup for outstanding financial news summaries.
5. The Hustle
- Frequency: Daily (weekdays only)
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Business and tech industry news
With more of a tech slant than competing newsletters, The Hustle serves up the day’s most significant business, financial, and technology stories in “five minutes or less.”
It’s 100% free, and like many others, it wears its sense of humor on its sleeve. Expect a startup-driven focus aimed particularly at tech professionals.
Beyond the typical high-level business news stories, they also sometimes provide more in-depth coverage of tech companies. But anyone can appreciate the down-to-earth approach to business news and tips and the quick, succinct summaries.
And the (lack of) price tag, of course.
6. Clark Howard
- Frequency: Daily (weekdays only)
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Personal finance, saving money, and travel
Consumer advocate and personal finance expert Clark Howard built his brand around helping people save money.
That goes for consumer products, of course, including a separate newsletter specifically for retail and restaurant deals. But Clark also offers a newsletter dedicated to saving money on travel along with his standard daily newsletter and weekly Best of Clark newsletter covering personal finance, budgeting, and investing tips.
Howard keeps the big picture in mind too, with plenty of tips on retirement planning.
For free personal finance updates and tips, Clark Howard doesn’t disappoint.
7. DailyWorth
- Frequency: Daily (weekdays only)
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Women’s finance and family issues
DailyWorth covers more personal and family finance topics as well as marriage and parenting rather than the loftier macroeconomic topics covered by Morning Brew and Robinhood Snacks.
It also delivers a female-centric perspective: DailyWorth is the newsletter arm of women’s financial website HerMoney, created by Jean Chatzky. Beyond being a personal finance blog and newsletter, HerMoney also produces a podcast.
Don’t be put off by the fact that DailyWorth hasn’t updated its website in a while. HerMoney continues cranking out excellent content and newsletters daily.
For women looking for personal finance and family advice written by and for women, DailyWorth makes a reliable daily newsletter.
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8. The Minority Mindset
- Frequency: Daily (weekdays only)
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Business and financial trends and entrepreneurship
Like Morning Brew and Robinhood Snacks, The Minority Mindset provides a high-level view of business and financial news. And they do so with an upbeat, casual tone.
Beyond just daily news summaries, The Minority Mindset aims to help you think differently about money. They know how dysfunctionally the average person approaches their finances. They want you to do better.
I also like that The Minority Mindset ties those macroeconomic news stories back to you and your wallet. With a more practical, hands-on approach, they don’t want you to lose sight of how business and financial trends affect you personally.
Plus, they include a fun “Mind Break” that ties together pop culture, business trivia, and inspirational stories about bootstrapping entrepreneurs. What’s not to like?
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9. Jill on Money
- Frequency: Daily (weekdays only)
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Business and financial trends and personal finance
Financial planner Jill Schlesinger seems to be everywhere all at once.
She serves as a correspondent for “CBS This Morning” and regularly appears on “Face the Nation.” Schlesinger maintains a daily financial podcast and a weekly blog. Somehow, she also found the time to write a bestselling personal finance book, “The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money.”
And of course, she sends out a daily newsletter.
Schlesinger’s newsletter covers everything from broad money moves to make at each phase of your life to money habits to daily financial news and trends. It takes a well-rounded approach to both economic news and personal finance.
Plus, you get Schlesinger’s outspoken and often entertainingly blunt perspective on money. She keeps it real.
10. Finimize
- Frequency: Daily (weekdays only)
- Cost: Free or $59.95 annually
- Focus: Business and financial news
The pitch: “Understand today’s financial news within 3 minutes. For free.”
Finimize takes a similar approach to Morning Brew, with quick financial news summaries delivered with a smile. Finimize sends out two of the day’s top news stories in their free newsletter.
Finimize also offers longer news analyses, more in-depth daily reporting, recorded audio of their content, premium meetups, and other add-ons if you pay an annual fee. They do offer a seven-day free trial to dip your toe in the water.
Try the free subscription first, and if you like what you find, you can then try out the premium subscription.
11. Your Money by The New York Times
- Frequency: Weekly
- Cost: Newsletter is free, but an NYT subscription, which allows you to read as much content on the site as you’re willing to pay for, starts around $1 per week (the free account limits the number of articles you can read)
- Focus: Personal finance, business and financial news
Like most of The New York Times, their Your Money section and newsletter require a subscription. Whatever your political slant, no one writes quite like The Times.
From spending habits and saving money to retirement planning and investing, The Times’ Your Money section helps increase your financial literacy across the board. But unlike the rest of the website, Your Money provides more direct advice and tips and less news.
You can view a certain number of articles for free each month, with different subscription options depending on the volume of content you want to access.
12. MarketWatch
- Frequency: Some daily, some sent as news breaks
- Cost: Free story alerts, articles behind paywall
- Focus: Business and financial news, personal finance
MarketWatch Bulletin emails important news clips as they develop throughout the day. The email subject is the headline, and the email itself is simply a link to the online article. That keeps them fast and simple to either delete without opening or open and click through.
Beyond their on-the-fly bulletin, however, they offer a range of newsletters for personal finance, tech news, mutual funds, and a half-dozen other topics. I enjoy their frank, straightforward prose and explanations with no jargon or forced laughs.
And as someone who spends far too much of their day in their inbox, I appreciate getting the most urgent news at a glance.
Sadly, MarketWatch put up a paywall in 2020. They still allow a few free article views per month, but it reduces the value of their bulletin emails when you can only click a few each month.
13. The Daily Upside
- Frequency: Daily
- Cost: Free
- Focus: Business and financial news
Every morning, The Daily Upside delivers a five-minute business and investing news summary with a side of sly smile. It makes another fantastic option for macroeconomic stories that affect your wallet and career.
Founded by a Wall Street veteran who introduces himself only as “Pat” or “Patrick T.,” The Daily Upside covers major stories in banking, personal finance, investing, and corporate news. It also explains how geopolitical issues could impact your wallet or career.
If Morning Brew’s references start feeling too 20-something for you, check out The Daily Upside as a worthy (and witty) alternative. It serves up well-curated business and economic content day in and day out with no fluff or filler.
Final Word
In today’s world, financial headlines change quickly.
Entrepreneurs and business managers should subscribe to Morning Brew, Robinhood Snacks, or Minority Mindset. Those less interested in high-level business news and keener on personal finance tips should check out Clark Howard, Jill on Money, or DailyWorth.
Regardless of where you get your financial news, everyone could stand to be just a little more informed about money. With only five minutes a day and any of these newsletters, you can be.
