Greg Smith wrote a book called Why I Left Goldman Sachs, Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2012 and if you work in a field with titles of Managing Partners, Vice Presidents and Associates, it is good book to help understand the things you need to do to advance your career, besides doing an excellent job. In the case of Mr. Smith what defined excellence changed over the years essentially from making money and helping clients to making money. Making money and helping clients tries to have a longer term focus for helping clients does not always mean they trade with you (your competition is doing the same thing) but it does mean trying to provide them with ideas and solutions that should work. It also means that the interests of the clients come before the interest of the firm, clients are not just revenue generators. Mr. Smith observed the focus of Goldman and others, became short term profits and the firm’s interest first. Eventually clients saw what was happening and stated we do not trust you, but because of who you are, we still need to deal with you.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, on Wall Street or whatever street you trade on, they love big fee generators. In the case of dividend stocks, there is limited fee after you have purchased the stock. The idea is to sit back, adjust as need be, but as long as the company is paying a dividend with a yield you like, there are no extra fees. If you own shares in a company which has paid a dividend for 50 years, then the stock price will go up and down a bit, all companies have some movements, however you should be able to hold that stock in your portfolio for 10 years or more. You do not have to pay attention to the next latest and hottest craze, it may not matter to you. There are other people trading every second or minute or hour or day, it does not have to be you. Through holding quality stocks which pay a dividend, you have lowered your risk and often are well ahead of the index.

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