The end of the year is fast approaching and with it millions of people are buying Christmas gifts. In years gone by, Christmas was a time for gift giving because the Wise Men brought gifts to the baby Jesus. Now days Christmas is a paid holiday and the tradition of giving gifts remains. However you celebrate the holiday, hopefully the giving of the gifts is as much importance as the receiving. From an economic point of view, western countries would not exist without retail shopping. The retail shoppers of the world drive the economy. This is both a good and bad thing however the bad generally shows up next year in the credit card bills and if they are not paid it is called consumer debt. As an investor, there is opportunity. Whether you buy gifts or not, it is time to check out the retail stores to see how people are spending armed with the knowledge many stores make their profits during the last quarter. If you see fewer shoppers, perhaps staying away from the retail store providers is a good thing. Two companies that will benefit whatever sales are MasterCard and Visa and they charge higher interest rates.

Linking to dividend producing stocks, both VISA and MasterCard are classic stocks a dividend buyer is looking for. They both have high barrier to entry, the competition is cash, but does the average mythical consumer have enough cash or do they need the help of the credit card? Both companies pay dividends, they both have strong market share, both have stocks that have risen in price, they both have high rates of return and as the western economies in general pick up from the 2008 fall out, the stocks should continue to rise as more people unlock their credit cards.

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