Quote:
Originally Posted by jrjr729
..............................
If you do not like your current mix of stock investments, consider becoming a bit more defensive y buying consumer staples and shifting into high dividend paying stocks.
Finally, although annuities have there place in some portfolios they might not fit in yours. After all, if you have a well funded pension that plus social security means you already have two annuities. Do you need more?
|
Hi jrjr,
While I hope we all know that nobody should be taking investment advice from somebody posting on a forum, I enjoy the discussions and have to throw in my opinion from time to time. It can be fun to bounce some ideas around.
I will say that the last two points you make here in your post, I can mostly agree with.
But about that word "high" in front of dividend. I have to fine-tune that one just a little. So jrjr, please bear with me here. I bet you already know all this.
All dividends are not created equal and if a dividend looks too good to be true, it just might be. An investor needs to look at dividend history. How long has the dividend been paid and how consistent is the history of increases? Also, I have to know the company. Know what they do. I have to understand the company. A dividend that is way high may be ripe for being cut. In my unschooled, not-a-professional, sleep-at-night book of investing, if something looks out of whack, it probably is.
And I know that this is the old buy and hold philosophy showing. Catching a good solid company when it is down can give you a decent dividend while you wait for the price to go back up. I can't look just at that percentage return of the dividend. For me, it is relative to all the other stuff I have to think about. But like you, jrjr, I like good dividend paying stocks. In fact, I will not buy a stock that does not have a dividend.
I do not think anybody who is now retired or close should be putting anything at risk that they will need for retirement expenses. That's my "bird in the hand" philosophy. I have seen too many people retire based on the projections of some investment "expert" who was plugging numbers into a computer and spitting out such a pretty picture.
And as far as the market now is concerned, I think all bets are still off. We have never seen anything like this mess. It has grown arms and legs all over the place. We have no means of comparison in our economic history. Meanwhile, my little buy of a few shares of Kraft is doing well. I just felt like mac and cheese was a good bet. But who really knows? I sure don't. I think it is going to be a while. But my cup of Maxwell House is half full.
Boomer