Everyone who lives in a home or apartment, eventually wants to fix up something. For the little repairs, we can all do it yourself or DIY. For major repairs we call others including a professional. Buying growth stocks expecting prices to increase in the short term, you need advice from someone who is in the market on a daily basis. Buying dividend paying stocks which you intend to hold for a long period of time, you can easily do it yourself or DIY.
The reason why you can DIY is the narrow field of stocks to chose from. Most stocks that trade on the stock exchange do not paid dividends, they exist for their possible increase in stock price, therefore you do not have to pay attention to them, you can strike them off your list. You have greatly narrowed the field, the stocks you are paying attention to are dividend paying, and have paid dividends for a number of years.
The names will tend to be mature companies that make money, the difference each year is how much money the company makes? not if? A few columns ago the example of General Mills and JP Morgan Chase was used, both made money, both pay dividends, both made less money last year, but still made money. The question was not will they earn a profit, but how much? Sticking to companies such as these over the long term benefits you.
After you have your list, you will group the companies by what they do or by sector. Then you decide based on your resources which one do you buy? In the case of heavy machinery sector Caterpillar or John Deere? This is your judgement or where your bias comes in. In this instance both companies have very good things about them, both make money, either one or both should be a great choice. In the long term combining the stock price and dividend, you will do well. In this case you might ask do you like yellow tractors or green tractos better? When you have a choice of quality, it is often the little things that make the difference.

There are always more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions