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What are the best financial websites?
The best financial sites offer a wealth of resources to people ranging from beginning investors to seasoned professionals. Some of these websites come from recognized leading financial media sources while others offer personal and investment financial advice from bloggers who have been successful. We have compiled a list of the best financial sites and finance blogs that you should include in your list of reading.
Why should I read the top financial websites?
In the past, people had to rely on financial advisors to gain information and education about finance. That notion has changed with the availability of the internet. There is a variety of top financial websites with more coming online each day. Since not everyone has a background in finance, reading some of the best websites is a great way for you to become more educated and confident about finance.
When did financial advice websites begin?
Financial websites started in the late 1990s with many more coming online in the 2000s. Some, such as Bankrate, started out in print decades ago before transforming into one of the best financial websites. Financial planning websites can help you to learn how to manage your money and to build wealth in a more effective way.
Learn about the best financial websites and financial blogs from M1 Finance Users of the best financial websites today
According to data from Statista, the top three leading finance websites by visitors include Yahoo! Finance with 70 million visitors per month, MSN Money Central with 65 million monthly visitors, and CNN Money with 50 million monthly visitors. The need for financial education and literacy is clear. According to the Financial Educators Council, the average test result for financial literacy across all age groups was a low 63%.
According to the Next Web, more than one million new users of the internet are coming online every day. There are reportedly over 4.3 billion internet users who are now online around the world. The global reach of the internet makes it an ideal vehicle for helping people around the world to become financially literate.
What are some of the best general financial websites?
These best financial websites are leaders in the provision of general financial information. Investors of all levels can benefit by making it a habit to read these top financial websites on a regular basis.
Yahoo!Finance
Yahoo! Finance aggregates finance news from around the internet. It also allows you to purchase company reports. You can find charts, price quotes, information about competitor companies, earnings reports and key ratios for free.
CNBC Markets
CNBC Markets provides up-to-date news about the global markets. In the news section, you can find listings of developments in the U.S. stock markets as well as for developments across Europe and Asia.
Forbes Money
Forbes Money is a leader in the finance and business world. Readers who are invested in topics such as investing, business and leadership can all find something that appeals to them in Forbes. In addition to finance topics, Forbes also covers related financial areas.
Investing.com
Investing.com is one of the best financial sites for people who are interested in active trading. On the home page, you can view forex prices, ETFs, commodities prices and futures contracts. The news section offers in-depth articles. Investors check this site daily to see current quotes for a variety of different investments.
Bloomberg
Bloomberg is one of the best financial websites for market data. On its news section, you can choose from different categories by region, general financial information, industry and asset class. You can see the historical information for a queried stock, which is helpful in identifying how different types of news reports impact the performance of the stock.
Reuters
Reuters is another website for obtaining market data. It offers broad coverage of stock news, sector news and market news. You can also find historical information, as well as an auto-complete stock name feature that is helpful search tool.
GoogleFinance
GoogleFinance is one of the best financial sites because of its search functionality. You can find an abundance of information about price quotes, news, competitor companies, earnings reports and key ratios. Keep in mind that some news items are not in real-time.
Read about the best financial websites and financial blogs from M1 Finance The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal has been released in print format since 1989. Online, it is reviewed as one of the top financial websites around the world. Readers from across the globe subscribe to the Wall Street Journal for its business news. The WSJ also offers its readers email alerts about news and stock information.
Investopedia
Investopedia is one of the best financial websites because of its emphasis on financial education. You are able to start a watchlist to track your stocks and can take courses on investing through its Investopedia Academy. The many articles offered by Investopedia is a rich resource for people who want to learn more about the stock market and financial principles.
Financial Times
The Financial Times is another leading publication that is read around the world. It offers comprehensive international coverage of financial news. However, you are only able to read the headlines for free. With a paid subscription, you can read the detailed news reports and gain access to diversified content.
NerdWallet
NerdWallet is one of the best financial websites for comparisons. The site allows you to compare investment accounts, high-yield savings accounts, CDs, debit cards, mortgages and credit cards. The site releases a best list for every category annually.
The Economist
The Economist is another go-to source for the latest in international news. It is authoritative and offers in-depth coverage of politics, finance, business, technology and science.
BankRate
BankRate was launched in 1976 as a newsletter and is highly respected. It has become one of the best financial websites available on the internet. You can find a wealth of data on mortgages, bank rates and credit cards. It also offers online financial advice about financial planning, investing and saving for retirement.
Barron’s
Barron’s is a weekly newspaper that has been published since 1921. On its website, it provides news about market developments in the U.S., financial information and related statistics. The website contains interest sections with in-depth coverage contained within each. Latest financial news can be found on its home page, while interest sections include technology, retirement, options and funds.
SEC
The SEC offers primary source material such as the quarterly and annual financial reports that have been filed with the SEC. These include publicly-traded companies’ filings. All of this data can be accessed through EDGAR on the SEC’s website by searching for a stock ticker symbol or the name of a company.
Kiplinger
Kiplinger ranks as one of the top financial advice websites. It is a sound resource for financial advice with coverage on how to save money and avoid fees. Kiplinger has a section that covers the basics of personal finance and has quizzes on a variety of finance topics.
Motley Fool
The Motley Fool offers investors in-depth analysis on general financial information. It also has stock market analyses and insights. While the name might be odd, the financial services company encourages its readers to become financially independent through information and research. Access to advice from experts is offered for an additional charge.
Money Morning
Money Morning boasts a free daily newsletter on information that can help you to become financially independent. The site’s layout is divided into major categories as well as hot topics sections. You can find advice on different stocks with in-depth analyses.
What are some of the best financial websites for stocks and trading?
If you are wanting to focus on the best financial websites for stocks, you can cut down your search time by including in your reading these best financial sites that we have listed for you. Each of these sites allows you to get the information that you need about different stocks and companies so that you can make informed investment decisions.
Investigate the best financial websites and financial blogs from M1 Finance CNN Markets
CNN is among the top news networks in the world. It has a markets section that simplifies browsing of economic news. The markets section contains current financial news, commodities changes, trending stocks and much more. Each of these topics has its own dedicated page for more in-depth information. If you want a fast update about the market news, CNN is a great source.
MarketWatch
MarketWatch has a news viewer section that gives you access to stories that have timestamps. News items are automatically updated, and its coverage includes global stock markets, forex, commodities and other classes of assets. It also offers data about macroeconomics and fundamental analysis information.
Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha aggregates data from other financial sites. You can find trending finance articles from across the internet together with the top-performing stocks and recent news. Seeking Alpha articles range from types of investment to investment strategies.
NASDAQ
NASDAQ offers the latest analysis and stock market news. You can find information on companies and their competitors, the latest news and see how the markets are performing. The site also provides quote updates and financial tools to aid in your investing endeavors.
Morningstar
Morningstar allows you to view annual returns of ETFs and mutual funds for the past 10 years. Quarterly and monthly returns for the past five years are also available on this site. You can review the after-tax returns of different funds so that you can gain a better idea of investor earnings.
The Street
The Street is one of the best financial sites for news about investing. When you read The Street, you can find opinions, recommendations, current events and how to get started in the market. There are also paid services that are available to investors, including market analyses and advanced strategies.
Zacks Investment Research
Zacks Investment Research requires you to sign up for a free membership to gain access to its data on funds and stocks. You are able to use this site to conduct comprehensive research. Zacks gives you access to independent reports that can help you when you are trying to build a well-diversified portfolio.
Review the best financial websites and financial blogs from M1 Finance NYSE
If you are invested in the stock market, the NYSE should be included on your list of best financial sites to read. The NYSE access includes listings information, markets, historical and real-time market data. All investors should make a habit of checking the NYSE’s site on a regular basis to stay informed.
What are some of the best financial blog sites?
Our list of best financial websites contains multiple finance blogs. These blogs offer online financial advice and financial planning tools while also providing answers to common investing questions. A list of the best financial sites would not be complete without including these top financial websites.
The Balance
The Balance offers articles that are divided into categories such as retirement, investing, debt management and banking. The articles give advice about many areas of finance and aim to increase your financial literacy.
Wise Bread
Wise Bread is a community of personal finance bloggers and finance experts. The goal is to help people to live well financially and to derive more enjoyment out of life. It includes multiple sections, including personal finance, frugal living, life hacks, credit cards and career advice.
Financial Post
The Financial Post offers a mix of financial news and analysis together with personal finance advice. The site targets a range of people from young investors to high net worth investors.
Money Crashers
Money Crashers is a comprehensive site that covers nearly all things related to finance. You can find information about debt, credit, investments, living frugally, small business and family. The goal is to educate those who are looking to make sound financial decisions.
The Simple Dollar
The Simple Dollar, written by the author of “365 Ways to Live Cheap!”, provides numerous tips for frugal living. It is one of the best financial planning websites for people who are wanting to gain control of their finances. Reading this blog can give you answers to your financial questions about how to reduce your expenses so that you can live within your means.
Good Financial Cents
Good Financial Cents is one of the best financial sites for people who want to learn about personal finance. It is written by Jeff Rose, who also has a YouTube Channel featuring many of his blog topics. The focus of this certified financial advisor’s blog is to educate people on how to become financially independent.
Financial Samurai
The Financial Samurai was established in 2009 by Sam Dogen. He was able to leave his job in corporate America after 13 years by saving at least 50% of his after-tax income from the time that he began his professional job. He invested his savings in real estate, bonds, stocks and CDs in order to have enough passive income to be able to quit his job and focus on his blog. He offers information about wealth management, financial products, real estate and more.
Dave Ramsey
Dave Ramsey is a well-known expert in the finance field who offers financial planning tools and personal finance education. His blog is recognized as one of the top financial planning websites and is used by millions of people to learn how to build wealth, reduce debt and increase their savings.
Mint Life
Mint Life is among the best financial sites for people who are looking for a broad personal finance resource. The blog contains a large list of money management categories with a range of articles available in each. The categories include everything from student finances, housing finances, food budgets, to much more.
Mr. Money Mustache
Mr. Money Mustache is a credible finance site with a quirky name. The author, who was able to retire at age 30, started his blog in 2005 when he was 36 years old. The blog’s mission is to allow you to learn how to live below your means and to build your savings quickly so that you can retire early, too.
Incorporating some of the best financial websites into your daily life can help you to learn more about how you can attain financial freedom by budgeting, living frugally and making saving a habit. You can take the information that you learn from these sites and apply it when you invest with M1 Finance.
Learn how M1 can empower you to manage your money and earn more
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When you choose M1 Finance, you are able to invest for free. M1 does not charge management fees or commissions, and you will be able to access the powerful automation from anywhere with its mobile investing capabilities. Get started today by signing up online or call us to learn more about investing at 312-600-2883. DISCLAIMER: Please consult your finance and tax professionals to learn more about investing and taxes.
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I decided to utilize historic values to examine Krugman's statement:

To be successful, money must be both a medium of exchange and a reasonably stable store of value. And it remains completely unclear why BitCoin should be a stable store of value.

No one will deny that Bitcoin is currently extremely volatile. This is not an examination of that point. This is focused purely on the question of whether, historically, Bitcoin has proven to be a good store of value. No one can predict the future, so the best we have is historical data.
This is particularly of interest to me, give the recent tumble in Bitcoin price, as well as recent reports of the third worst collapse of the dollar in the past decade.
Methodology
To examine the quality of Store of Value, I examined the historical prices of seven different assets. I envisioned a buyer of the asset purchasing it on a given day, and holding it for some length of time (X), ranging between one day and about 3.5 years (which is all the data we have for Bitcoin).
The measurement is this: if you choose a random day to buy the asset, and you buy it at the mid-point price that day, and hold it for X days, what is the probability that it will still have 100% of its value after X days. It seems like a reasonable assumption is that an asset that is a good store of value would perform well in this scenario, and retain 100% of its value a high percentage of the time.
The seven assets were:

1. Bitcoin purchased on Bitstamp. Data provided by BitcoinCharts.
2. Bitcoin purchased on Mt. Gox. Data provided by BitcoinCharts.
3. Bitcoin Freely Exchangeable: For this measurement, I used Mt. Gox prices as mentioned above, until May 13, 2013 (the day before the US Government seized funds), and Bitstamp prices since then. This is an attempt to eliminate the odd pricing on Mt. Gox due to the withdrawal challenges.
4. The Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index, data provided by Google Finance. The data for this index was available going back to 4/18/2011. It's an index of the dollar, presumably comparing to other currencies. (This may be mislabeled, calling it a fund. Not sure.)
5. Spider Gold Shares GLD, an ETF for Gold. Data provided by Yahoo Finance. This data goes back to 11/18/2004.
6. Spider Gold Shares GLD, for the period that Bitcoin has been traded. Same data source as #5, but a subset of the data.
7. The US Dollar (1914-2013), reflecting the US monthly inflation rates. This data was provided by usInflationCalculator.com.

In all cases, I used the average of the daily high and the daily low, when available. In the case of the Dollar (1914-2013), I used monthly inflation rates.
In all cases, I set the purchase date to one of the days that the asset was traded. In the case of the Dollar (1914-2013), I utilized the first of the month. And I set the ending valuation date as the next time the asset traded, after X days elapsed. In the case of the Dollar (1914-2013), this would be the first of some future month, after X days had passed.
Results
Here's the Graph.
The best performing asset was buying Bitcoins on Bitstamp. In all cases historically, if you held the asset for 274 days, the asset was still worth 100% of your original investment.
Mt. Gox and the Freely Exchangeable Bitcoin measurements were similar: After 622 days, 100% of the time, your original invested value was retained.
The Dollar fund (index, actually) underperformed all Bitcoin options, when measuring periods less than 243 days. But for periods of between 471 days and 1033 days, 100% of the time, the dollar fund retained its complete value. (No data for periods longer than 1033 days).
The Gold ETF underperformed Bitcoin, whether you looked at the period of Bitcoin being on the market, or the life of the ETF.
And, no surprise, the dollar as measured by inflation, came in dead last. In the past 100 years, it has only retained its value month-over-month about 15% of the time. And the longer you held it, generally, the worse off you were.
All data is available at the sources above, and the computations are available.
The graph of the results is licensed for you to use widely with attribution.
I hope this helps when you are talking to the Krugmans of the world.
(Edit: it's -> its)