STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 13 January 2012

[AnneD]

83. We are of the same mind....

and I will add to your reasoning.

In order for a company to give a dividend, they have to be profitable. To be profitable, they have to maintain a balance sheet which requires some integrity. Now I am talking companies that actually produce something not a paper company like hedge funds or money laundering vehicle funds like Blackrock or Cerebus.

This promotes company stablility, real growth, and real profits and benefits the US economy. The reason any small investor is in the market is to be a hedge ahainst inflation.

Mom worked for AT&T for years. As a stockholder then, she enjoyed some shares of AT&T along with the baby bells. She tried to encourage all the people she supervised to keep their AT&T (you could get just more of the baby bells, or have AT&T and slightly fewer of the baby bells). They couldn't even give AT&T away them , but Mom proved to be right in the long run. That dividend is a really nice cushion for her and my stepdad.

While I have very little say in my managed mutual funds now...I will be starting my own self managed portfolio when I have a few bucks. You can bet it will have stocks that pay dividends. In fact, as a small investor, that would be the only way I would get into the market now if I had a mind to.

I am concentrating on cash holdings at the moment with an eye on some real estate (buying a home). No I am not a tycoon and consider myself to be in the 78%, but I do look at things from a business standpoint. My household budget is the accounts. The worst I can do is to break even...I always try to have at least a profit (savings) of 20% every year.

I have a diversified portfolio of cash (and PM's), commodities (my pantry of canned goods), and stocks (a Roth and 403B) and Bonds (my pension).

The best you can do is diversify the nest eggs in your basket and put as many different ones as you can.