Ever since I started Stock Gumshoe as a little “nights and weekends” project back in the Spring of 2007, we’ve made an effort to “give back” in some substantial way — we’ve given to at least a dozen different charities over the years, and every year we’ve set a new record for how much we (well, really you) have been able to give.
How do we do this? Well, for several years in a row now we’ve had a charitable membership drive — we always need new paying members to join the ranks of the Stock Gumshoe Irregulars (you’ve probably noticed that Stock Gumshoe hosts advertising so that we can provide a lot of content for free members, too, but paid members cover more than half of our annual budget), so we try to make it a “win win” and build up our membership rolls at the same time that we’re doing something for the greater good.
And we only do a membership drive and pester readers to sign up once a year, so we like this to be BIG — we’re not talking about donating 3% of the profits to charity, we shoot for 50% of revenues to charity from this membership drive.
So… if you sign up to join us as an Irregular, I will make a charitable donation equal to half of your payment.
What are the Irregulars, and what’s a “premium member?” They’re the same thing. The Stock Gumshoe Irregulars (the name is borrowed from Sherlock Holmes) are our paid members, they keep the site going and get a few extra benefits as a result — including a weekly commentary I write just for them called the Friday File, the details of my personal Real Money Portfolio and the buys and sells I make, the ability to start their own discussion threads, and a “Quick Take” little summary of every new teaser article.
I’d like to tell you that it’s my prescient analysis of the stocks I buy and sell that keeps our paid readers happy, but a lot of our members tell me that Quick Take box is the main reason they subscribe and keep renewing — it’s a great time saver for those who can’t stand to read my long and blathery articles (you get the name of the newsletter, the stock they’re teasing, and a couple quick sentences summarizing the story or my opinion).
How do we get the donation pot to be larger this year? We’re going to again make it a longer time period, bumping our campaign up to TWO WEEKS, and I’m going to donate an amount equal to not just half of all new member contributions, but half of all upgrades as well. I hope we’ll hit a new record again.
And don’t worry, this does still also work out well for Stock Gumshoe and allow us to invest in better infrastructure and continue to improve the site and the service we provide for you — mostly because we know that our members stick around and we can count on them (we’ve got a huge percentage of those initial readers who sent us contributions before we had a premium membership, and asked how they could support my work in 2007, still with us today, for which I’m very grateful).
Here are the nuts and bolts:
All of our Irregulars receive the same content and access, the different levels just cover different time periods — you can sign up for $7/month or $59/year on an ongoing basis, and get locked in at that price for as long as you remain a member (we have raised our prices every few years, to keep up with costs), or you can commit to Platinum “lifetime” membership for $329 up front (nonrefundable) and never pay anything again.
How to do it:
If you don’t have a Stock Gumshoe username, click here for the easy signup page, choose a username and password and a membership level and it will take just a couple minutes.
Or if you do have a username (you can log in, and it recognizes your name up at the upper right of the page), then click here if you would like to upgrade (that way you can keep the same username and password — if you don’t remember your username or need help, just contact us).
And this is important: If you’re upgrading but already have an ongoing monthly or annual paid membership, please contact us and we’ll make sure to cancel that other ongoing membership for you so you don’t get charged for renewals in the future. (Hopefully we’ll catch all the duplicates on our end, but if you let us know you’ve upgraded then we can wear both belt and suspenders.)
And here’s my charitable promise, to be clear:
I will make charitable contributions equal to half of Stock Gumshoe’s new member subscription payments and upgraded memberships over the next 14 days. So for every new or upgraded annual member in the Irregulars ($59), I’ll donate $29.50; for every Platinum membership ($329), I’ll donate $164.50. Same for any new first-time members who sign up for the monthly version (that’s $7/month, so I’ll donate $3.50 for each). I’m not taking out the credit card processing or bank fees, or any of our other expenses — half of the top line number between now and December 24 goes to charity.
No, you can’t claim this as a charitable deduction, they don’t “pass through” that way (though if you itemize your investing costs, like advisory fees or a Barron’s subscription, people tell me membership in Stock Gumshoe might also be deductible — this isn’t as flexible as it used to be, and I don’t know what the current rules are, so please check with your tax person). And it won’t technically be Stock Gumshoe, Inc. making the donations, it will be me… but I own 100% of Stock Gumshoe anyway, it just makes the bookkeeping easier.
Which causes? I make the final decision each year, but I’ll be asking the key folks who keep Stock Gumshoe running to choose charitable organizations that are important to them, and that will be a portion of the donation… and I have a couple causes that are near and dear to my heart in our local area, particularly those fighting homelessness and hunger, so those will receive gifts.
I’m not supporting anything that I consider controversial or political or angst-inducing with these donations, but I’m sure that the causes we end up supporting won’t all be your top choices, so I hope you’ll also support the charities that are important to you — if it’s a choice between joining the Stock Gumshoe Irregulars and making a donation to your favorite charity, please do the latter… we love the support of our members and depend on the Irregulars, but no one at Gumshoe HQ is missing any meals.
So that’s the story — will you help us to strengthen Stock Gumshoe for the future, letting us put more into improving the site and sharing compelling commentary and ideas with you? If so, you can rest assured with the knowledge that you’re also helping someone else… maybe a homeless veteran, a sick family in an impoverished land, a victim of natural disaster, or a hungry neighbor.
I hope you’ll join us this year, if you haven’t already — and I hope you are experiencing a life full of blessings. I know I am, and working on your behalf for these past dozen years has been near the top of the list — thank you for helping to make that possible.
And of course, whether or not you choose to cough up some dough and join us or upgrade — I hope you’ll keep reading. We do love all of our readers, even those who give us only their (valuable) attention. Thanks for making Stock Gumshoe a part of your investing life.
P.S. Thanks again for considering joining us as a paid Irregular (or upgrading to Platinum membership) during this charitable membership drive — we’ll tally up all membership payments between now and December 24 to figure out what the donations will be, and hopefully I’ll be able to surprise some great charitable organizations with a nice big donation just in time for Christmas. If you’re able, please join today and make suggestions of charities that we might consider in the comments below (or add your “thumbs up” to other suggestions). Any questions? Just click here to contact us.
OK, OK,I’m persuaded to join. After three years of free service, I now confess to searching “Stock Gumshoe” for nearly every question I have about stock promotions. Time to pay up for an outstanding resource.
Ditto Joan Cash
Thanks so much!
Dear Travis, as a member almost from the beginning, I get (& feel guilty about) your excellent work for free. I haven’t bought anything based on your findings in a long time (a bit of Nokia was the last), but you have saved me so much time I had spent on trying to decode the promotional articles that came regularly in the mail. I do occasionally give to your bicycling drive.
I don’t give to this campaign, as I give a substantial amount to colleges, medical research facilities, and other charities. I agree that those of us who have done well have a duty to consider the less successful.
I also think that thoughtful Republicans should note that our democracy is in dire danger from an irresponsible President and his slavish followers in Congress. Turkey, Poland, and other former democracies have pretty well seen their government structures hollowed out by autocratically-minded leaders and their parties; we are seeing the same.
Yours,
Paul LaRocca
Duplicated, sorry. Can be removed.
@joan Cash – and you’ll be able to have us give you TUs too! (that’s thumbs ups)
Welcome to the Gummiverse –
Penny
Hi. I don’t suppose you would care to mention some of the charities you’ve donated to, in the past? (these things are kind of personal… when my mother died, her request was no flowers, just donate to any organization which was working to defeat Bush and / or defend the Constitution… someone interpreted that as the NRA, which wouldn’t have been her first choice… 🙂
We usually have someone who gets mad about whatever we choose and sends discussion off track, so I don’t emphasize the individual recipients as much as I used to… but recent recipients have included the Cape Fear Literacy Council, Friends of Hampshire County Homeless, Food Bank of Western MA, Hospicare of Tompkins County, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins Cancer Center, Mote Marine Laboratory, and Porch Chapel Hill, to name a few.
I agree with Joan…Im not doing it for the charity, I’m doing it because you’re the only one who has provided a service FIRST and THEN made a REQUEST for payment… All the pitches you analyze demand PAYMENT for their newsletter FIRST, before they offer up the stock they’re pitching….which many times is BS, thanks to YOU doing OUR research for us… Thanks!
We’re delighted to have you aboard, whatever the motivation — thanks! And thanks for the kind words, I love this work and it’s wonderful to have enough support to be able to keep doing it!
hello
I’m glad I found you. I’ve been reading your articles for a few months now and I like it
Your thoughtful and persuasive discussion of your (and our) charitable giving has convinced me to join in . . .and set comments to alert to remind me..!!
…tom…
“(dudes in their 50s and 60s who have an interest in investing or are worried about retirement).”
OK, OK . . .I am in …assuming the charge goes through.
Not exactly “worried about retirement” . . .but the bio descriptor above might otherwise fit me.
Looking forward to learning and profiting this coming year an re-upping next December.
…tom…
I’m in…..the best money I have spent lately! I have got more from this than all 3 of the so called “experts” I paid although I guess the jury is still out on them. I was just about to get Mat McCalls pot “tips” and I did a search and this site came up. By the way does anyone know what the Microcap Millionaire Summit stock or stocks from Alex Green is? He has really been bombarding me with emails and text messages.
Hello newbie. I have followed Alex for 4 years from2004 . And rejoined last sept. He is top guy(IMHO) at The Oxford Club. Happy Researching.
Morning to all the Stock Gumshoe Irregulars. My name is Peter fro Bexley UK and I have just upgraded from a free membership to an Irregulars yearly membership.
Can anybody in the United States please advise me. I have never traded any shares? Do you all think that a reasonably intelligent guy like me could learn to do simple trades??
There is a specific reason that I am asking this.
I have been following as a low paid member The National Institute of Cannabis Investors (NICI)
At the moment (for a few months) they have been touting a new syndicate “Cannabis Lots”
According to the video, “Every Thursday a cannabis lot is offer to members of the syndicate, you only need to put up $400 – $500 on each lots to see a possible return of $1,000, $3,000 or even $5,000 within 7 – 10 days”
The reasons you have to be a part of NICIs syndicate is because “Normally” these Lots are only offered to accredited investors (people with a $1,000,000 +)
My other question (apart from the trading question above) is: Is this Cannabis Lots concept true, does it work and have any of the Irregulars profited from it, or had any, good, bad or indifferent experiences with it or with the NICI syndicates in general???
I look forward to some positive feedback from the Clever people on the other side of “The Pond”
Kind regards
Peter Sullivan
Bexley UK
I haven’t written about that, I don’t think, but I expect “Cannabis Lots” are simply call options on cannabis-related stocks — which means 1,000% short term gains are indeed possible, though exceedingly unlikely. I rarely hear positive feedback about any options trading service, they all promise enormous gains because of the huge leverage inherent in options, and they fail to point out in their ads that the vast majority of their option speculations will lose 50-100% of their value (and that options are mostly very illiquid, so once they have more than 100 or so subscribers it’s difficult to place trades at anywhere near the price recommended).
But yes, you should easily be able to trade US stocks or options if you wish to learn the basics — I just wouldn’t start with something as speculative as that.
Thoroughly recommend to anyone considering it…take the plunge and become a irregular…..money very well spent…!
Hey Travis already a member but I’d give a buck or two (figuratively speaking) towards your cause as the list of charities are very respectable. In the future why not allow members to chip in a bit or maybe a go fund me page with 100% of that vehicle going towards the charities you choose.
Same here. Already a member but would be glad to pitch in.
Thanks friend, we encourage folks to choose their own charitable causes but if folks want to send us some more money to add to the giving pile, you’re welcome to do so — we can take PayPal at admin@stockgumshoe.com, or checks to
Stock Gumshoe
351 Pleasant St. Ste. B #205
Northampton, MA 01060
Thanks for the kind words and sentiment!
Enjoying my second year as a paying member with you.
For most of my life, I funded my 401k to the max + and left the investing to the pros. 7 years ago, life changed in blink of an eye when accident left me a quad and my frame of reference when from globe trotting pharma exec to spending my days at home in a wheelchair and traveling to/from gym and rehab for therapy. I had great LTD insurance from work which pays the bills, lots of $$ in 401k and several bank accounts, a home we had to make minimal adjustments to to stay within and an amazing wife who helps me stay alive.
I decided to dedicate some of my new free time to managing my money and learning about investing (BS Accting and MBA Economics didn’t hurt). I signed up for every free service, avoided giving people $ for their services and have done ok. Finding your service has been a nice addition to my information supply and taught me heaps. Thank you.
I’d like to bring an organization to your attention as a candidate for some charity. They run a summer camp for people whose life changed due to a spinal cord injury. I was the oldest there with the youngest being in high school. The camp made a big difference to each of us; and perhaps more importantly, gave our caregivers (parents, spouses, siblings) a much needed break from keeping us alive. https://www.empowersci.org/
Thanks again and enjoy the holidays!
Great idea, thank you!
Hi Travis, I’ve been a free subscriber for several years and Stock Gumshoe is my ‘go to’ site to research the myriad of ‘hot’ offers and sales pitches that seem to come to my inbox daily. Much appreciate your work and valuable investigations on these. Today I’ve become an Irregular, partly to donate to charity, but mainly to support your work. Some charities I regularly donate to are Samaritan’s Purse, Small World Adoptions, Salvation Army, American Veterans Center, and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. If any of these meet your standards then please consider donating to them. Thanks
Just upgraded Travis.
Your work is so good!
Your analysis on REITs (ProLogic etc) was masterful .
Thanks for what you do
Thank you!
Travis you are a class act – your insight and clarity are most appreciated!! I just gladly put the subscription “contribution” into the plate as it was passed down the aisle. After having been sworn for at least one year, I now am privileged to hold the rank of Stock Gumshoe Irregular Volunteer!! We are all blessed so lead Onward and Upward!!
Where’s the link to renew if you’re already an irregular?
How about making some buttons that are easy to find so you don’t have to read through every word
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husbandry
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Sorry for the inconvenience. If you’re logged in, you can just click on your name on the top left and you can see your membership status and the add/renew/upgrade options.