We all start with investing in our own country or region because we know the companies and want to gain a benefit from them or it is easier to watch them. How are they doing? who the people are? are they on the correct track to continually making a profit to pay the dividend? As we accumulate wealth, we look to companies in other countries, some will be very similar to each other for example G8 countries have similar rules and regulations. For countries that are blessed with mineral deposits but not a stable government or a government in flux, there is money to made with healthy profits. In countries such as those, security plays a role and as investors we do not often have to think about it. However there is an interesting book about the subject called Fortune’s Warriors by James R Davis, Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, 2000. The book is about Private Armies or Soldiers of Fortune or Military Advisors or Mercenaries and is a very good introduction to the field. Every country in the world has an military and with luck many will not have to use their weapons. However, there are countries where bullets fly on a consistent basis and those that retire – consult or continue in a private army using their skills at a higher pay and focusing on private property for example mines or tank farms. There are very good reasons to use private security in order to protect the assets of the company, other people with a different agenda often want to control the production of the mine to pay for other uses.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one hopes the companies that consistently makes a profit uses the better of the companies involved. It is worth asking which type of security company, your company uses for some are publicly traded. The companies vary in what they do or what they do not do. It is one thing to do analysis to provide advice, set up the conditions to minimize security threats and another thing to kill people. Private security is a broad field with many different types of firms and characters involved, hopefully your company is using solid reputable firms and the cost remains a small one.

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