Tag: oxford club

When I began this article, I was in the final few hours of New Year’s Eve. Now, my writing has stretched into the New Year of 2026. As I reflect over the year that was 2025, I am deeply grateful to God for helping me to learn more about the value of investing in the stock market for growing my wealth over the last year. It wasn’t until January 2025 that I truly began actively trading for higher gains. My greatest regret is waiting so late in my life to begin this endeavor. Nevertheless, as the old saying goes: “Better late than never.” I guess that’s true, but if only I had started sooner, I would be so much better off financially. Hopefully, you will learn from my error and avoid the same regret.

Investing in the stock market is not as complicated or capital-intensive as I had believed, though it is not for the financially ignorant. You can get started with only a few hundred dollars, but the more you can invest, the better your chances of growing your wealth faster. Before you go plunking large amounts of your hard-earned cash into businesses that may not be worthy, however, I strongly recommend you do plenty of research into their background, moral philosophy and financial management. Because this is so time-consuming and requires such highly astute investigation and review, the best way I’ve discovered to identify the worthiest businesses to invest in is by subscribing to one or more investor subscription services which conduct all of this in-depth research for you. Even so, you must be fully aware that every investment is a risk in hope of a reward. It oftentimes pays off, but sometimes you lose some (or all) of your investment, depending on how risky the investment was. When spread across multiple investments, however, your gains usually exceed your losses, leaving you with a net gain for your efforts, which is the entire purpose of this exercise, of course.

There are lots of excellent investment subscription services to choose from, but the ones I have found to be most helpful so far are Paradigm Press Group (featuring Jim Rickards, among several others) and The Oxford Club (featuring Marc Lichtenfeld, among others). Full disclosure: I do not have an affiliate relationship with either of these companies, nor am I compensated for my endorsements.

Because some of these services are quite expensive, I recommend you start off with their lowest paid subscriptions until you get your bearings and settle into a solid understanding of what you are doing as a new investor, unless, of course, you are not a beginner investor and already have ample experience in this area. Both Paradigm and Oxford have very good customer service, so you might reach out to that department first to ask for their help with finding the best “starter” service for your level of knowledge and experience.

Another, specifically Christian-based, service that will prove exceptionally helpful to those interested in biblically-based investing is Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries (FISM). While they do not offer a paid subscription service like those at Paradigm Press or Oxford Club, they do have an annual paid membership service which includes loads of money management articles, videos and stock investment recommendations devoted to helping Christians invest and manage their wealth more effectively. Because FISM is a nonprofit Christian ministry, they operate under different principles and guidelines than the others.

Naturally, before you can begin investing, you will need to create an investment account with one of the online investment brokerages, such as Fidelity. Since FISM recommended Fidelity when I first started, I recommend them to you, too, though you are certainly welcome to choose any other service you like. In fact, despite being recommended to choose Fidelity, I actually chose Ally for the first few years when I was just getting started, then I switched to Fidelity in January 2025, and have not looked back. Transferring accounts between brokerages is a fairly easy task, but it does require a few days to a couple of weeks for the process to complete. Therefore, I recommend you choose carefully, so that you can rest comfortably in your decision.

If you aren’t already involved with investing, I strongly suggest you start immediately. The New Year is a perfect time to do so. With that recommendation, I wish you a wonderfully happy and prosperous New Year.