Stock Advisor is the Motley Fool’s answer to this challenge. Launched back in 2002 by Motley Fool co-founders David Gardner and Tom Gardner, this monthly subscription newsletter service provides investors with a steady stream of expert tips and financial advice.

The investment newsletter is backed by extensive research — helping investors cut through the noise to understand where you should be putting your money and where you shouldn’t. (A note of disclosure: The Motley Fool now owns Millennial Money, but that isn’t influencing this review. I was a fan of Stock Advisor and The Motley Fool before they acquired this site; I wouldn’t have sold it to them if I weren’t.)

Stock Advisor Pros

• Proven to beat the market consistently over 20 years
• Ability to build watchlist & entire portfolios
• Very Cost-effective service
• Fully transparent auditing of stock picking performance
• A straightforward and intuitive website
• A passionate and loyal community of 700,000 people

What is the Stock Advisor Program?

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor program is an investment advisory service that help investors find stocks that can outperform the broader market. The goal of the service is to help casual investors get access to the same information that allows Wall Street institutions to generate exceptional returns.

The Stock Advisor service is simple by design. Members can expect to receive simple stock recommendations that can help them build strong investment portfolios.

Why Should You Use Stock Advisor?

There are two fundamental strategies that you can take with the stock market: You can attempt to track the S&P 500 or you can attempt to beat it by investing in stocks that end up outperforming the index. The former is not a bad plan — the market returns roughly 10% on average every year, which is a lot better than putting your money in a savings account or under your mattress.

The latter approach opens you up to the possibility of a much higher upside, but it’s not easy, and most investors wind up lagging behind the benchmark.

The Stock Advisor service claims to exceed S&P 500 returns by selecting high-quality individual stocks and recommending them to users — and with remarkable accuracy and a long track record of success. In fact, since Stock Advisor’s inception, the stock has produced a return of 562% compared to the S&P 500’s return of 117%. Wow!