Good morning, rjm1cc,

That's classic investment advice that can so often get lost in the razzle-dazzle of the spiels and the spins out there, everywhere. Warren Buffett agrees. "Understand what you own," says he.

I have shamelessly confessed here on TOTV, in the past, more than once, about that bubble-dancing I did back in the 90's. I learned. The only credit I can give myself after that one is that I did not bet the whole farm, just the butter and egg money. But I sure did learn. Experience is the best teacher. That's for sure. But I was young (sigh) and still highly employable.


Hi l2,

I own two on that list. Although I have been doing the old approach/avoidance routine with MO for a long, long time. That dividend is tempting. I am still mad at myself for missing MCD at its low.

I actually woke up long enough to take a little profit on a couple of utilities recently.

Euphemistically speaking, I have to think we could be nearing some (ahem) buying opportunities. There are some things that I like that are too close to those 52-week highs right now to suit me.

I wish I had some BRK -- 'A' would be really nice. Then I could go to the meetings. (sigh)

Warren Buffett once said to his shareholders, "Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style." -- I can relate to that.

Three-toed Boomer

I own MO, PM and KFT. The latter two due to spin offs from MO. I orginally bought Philip Morris in the early 80s when I quit smoking. Electric utilities are, IMHO, one of the safest dividend paying stocks. They can always just raise the rates if they need more money. Electric utilities are a good long term investment if you do not plan to sell and will be satisfied with a 5% dividend. Higher inflation can easily spoil that party if bond rates climb above that 5%.

Dividend stocks
 

Surprised that AT&T, Verizon and Reynolds weren't on the list.
Interesting that Cisco, Microsoft and Intel were categorized as dividend stocks. I owned Intel for a long time but not for it's dividend...

Count me in on the ground floor for an investment club. I checked and was supprised that the college in TV offers no courses. I just got back into the market after exiting at a very good time. I'm concentrating on dividend stocks. I've always in the past used mutual funds. I'm still going to use mutual funds, but have really enjoyed trading and so far so good.

Although it is not limited to "dividend investing" I'm sure the "Investment Education Club" established last year would explore this subject if someone would present it. The group is always looking for ideas for discussion. It already has a venue (Seabreeze Rec Center), and a time slot (2nd and 4th Thursdays at 3:30 p.m.)

KMP CEO Rich Kinder is on Cramer tonight. I just saw the interview. He talks about the function of an MLP and returns. You can see the rebroadcast on CNBC tonight at 11 or download the program from iTunes later tonight.

The "Investment Education Club" has dividend investing subject coming up in July.

I enjoy reading the Seeking Alpha investment web site.

They also have a section devoted to Investing for Income: http://seekingalpha.com/dashboard/investing_income

I like Seeking Alpha, too. I do not subscribe, nor do I read it every day, but I pick up on some of the articles when they are listed under a stock I am looking up on Yahoo or wherever.

I also like The Motley Fool and read it in the same way. Lately though, so many of Fool's articles get all bogged down in some elaborate formula. Most of those formulas start to make me feel like my head is being pinched in a vise. So now, mostly, I like Seeking Alpha's articles best. Not so many formulas.

Besides, Buffett said, "Beware of geeks bearing formulas."

Boomer

Add Covered Calls To Quality Dividend Stocks
 

I've been writing short term covered calls on quality good paying dividend stocks for some tme now. If you manage your position carefully you can usually collect your next quarterly dividend and at the same time collect your call premium leading to an even greater return.

I love the idea of an investment club called the "Investment Education Club." We were in TV for a short time last winter and I attended one of the meetings. I would have attended more of them, but we had to return home much sooner than we had planned. If I were there now, I would certainly not have missed the one on dividends......oh well......maybe next time.

I don't know if investment psychology will ever come up as a topic for your meeting, but if any of you have an interest in the psychology of investing -- like I do, you might like a book that was recently published. I just started reading it. The author is Louann Lofton who works for Motley Fool. The book is Warren Buffett Invests Like A Girl. It's fun to read.

On a very serious note -- not fun to read at all -- I just finished an article in the August issue of Money magazine titled "Keep the Sharks at Bay." It is part 3 of a series "Protecting Your Parents." It says that seniors lost nearly 3 billion dollars, last year, to financial predators. The article is excellent but really sad.

I hope you do not feel like I came in here and gave everybody homework. The book is a suggested reading if investment psychology is an interest. The article in this month's Money -- well.......that one oughta be required reading for everybody. Warning: It is scary as hell.

Boomer

Your yield is based on your purchase price so your yield didn't fall

I calculate yield on current valuation. You can always sell and reinvest and possibly improve your overall yield. The moral of the story is to constantly review your portfolio. You may think you have great returns on historical purchase price when there are better yields and investments out there....

Market Gyration Headaches
 

This economy and stock market are going to make me lose what hair I have left. As I have posted previously, I invest in a range of dividend paying stocks. Most are mlp's but I have a number of other "non-pipeline" stocks as well. While these investments have stood up very well even through the crash of 2008, it is difficult to watch the volatility that is going on today. I realize that as long as the companies I have stock in do not cut their dividends, then the day to day gyrations of the market do not effect my income at all. But these last 6 months make me wish that I was wealthy enough to pull all my money from the market and live on safer investments. Who can guess where we are headed now after Bernanke's statements yesterday?

a bit strange that no-one has admitted to making any losses

in a zero-sum game, with all of TV making out like bandits, there must be others out there really hurting