Sound Mind Investing

For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7 (New King James Version)

Several years ago (probably 15 years at this point) when I was just learning about investing, I found out about Sound Mind Investing, the company that bills itself as "America's premier Christian financial newsletter." Here's a bit about them:

Sound Mind Investing is America's best-selling financial newsletter written from a biblical perspective. Published by investment adviser Austin Pryor since 1990, over 13,000 families rely on our monthly counsel. SMI offers step-by-step, easy-to-understand investment instruction that anyone can apply to their personal situation.

They have three main products, a monthly newsletter, a website, and a book. According to their site, all three cover investments (primarily) and focus on delivering a biblical perspective with personal application and superior returns (FYI, they provide data to back up this last claim).

Here are my experiences with and thoughts on Sound Mind Investing:

• I've read their book The Sound Mind Investing Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Managing Your Money from a Biblical Perspective. It's quite good, and though it's from a Christian perspective, I've recommended it to several non-Christians as it does a very good job of explaining the basics of investing.

• Several years ago, I subscribed to their newsletter and I found it quite useful in helping me to frame my on-going investment philosophy. (Note how their Just-the-Basics program mirrors my index fund investing strategy.) I then unsubscribed after a year because I felt I had learned enough to do it myself. A couple years ago, I resubscribed to see what they were up to, but found the information a bit too simplistic for an advanced investor.

• The newsletter and website are a bit pricey. The newsletter is $79 per year or $139 for a two-year subscription. The web membership costs $8.95 per month. If you buy the newsletter and the web membership, you only pay $4.50 per month for the web membership.

• The book is a decent price. The Sound Mind Investing Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Managing Your Money from a Biblical Perspective is $17.79 on their site but it's $14.95 on Amazon (if you can get free shipping, which I always do by bundling orders.)

• If you're just learning the basics of investing, this is a great resource. And if you want to have a Christian perspective on investing and money management (they offer some basic articles not related to investing), it's an excellent, excellent resource. And it's not just me who thinks so. They have several testimonials from top Christian leaders.

BTW, in case you're wondering, no, I don't receive anything from them when you sign up and they haven't paid me to write about them (though the book links above do earn me a small referral fee from Amazon -- all of which I give away.) They're simply a great resource for Christian investing that I wanted to share with all of you.

For more on this topic, here are some of my thoughts on Biblical investing.

Comments

[Jonathan]

FMF,

I'm a big fan of Sound Mind Investing and love the simplicity of their Upgrading strategy. What you forgot to mention was the outstanding performance of their Upgrading strategy. They've beaten the market 9 years in a row - averaging 12.8% vs 4.6% of the Wilshire 5000! Not many strategies or fund managers can claim that. What's even better you can now invest in their strategy through the Sound Mind Investing mutual fund (SMIFX). You don't even have to subscribe to the newsletter, they do all the managing for you.

[Jonathan]

FMF,

I'm a big fan of Sound Mind Investing and love the simplicity of their Upgrading strategy. What you forgot to mention was the outstanding performance of their Upgrading strategy. They've beaten the market 9 years in a row - averaging 12.8% vs 4.6% of the Wilshire 5000! Not many strategies or fund managers can claim that. What's even better you can now invest in their strategy through the Sound Mind Investing mutual fund (SMIFX). You don't even have to subscribe to the newsletter, they do all the managing for you.

[FMF]

Jonathan --

Maybe, but "past performance is not a predictor of future performance" and the SMI fund has a HUGE expense ratio.

[T. R. Garner]

Aren't you using apples and oranges in coming up with a rato. We're not factoring in stocks and bonds, but advice such as you would get from a financial advisor for a fee. Whether you use the advise, and how, is up to you.

[FMF]

TR --

Not sure what you mean. Are you talking about my comment that the service is pricey?

[Matt Jabs]

I just received a free copy of the Handbook from the founders son Matt Pryor after he began following me on Twitter. I'm excited to read & study through the book in combination with the Word of God.

DebtFREEk!