The travels in the past week took me to a lake which had cool breezes to offset the hot sunshine and some young people in canoes were seen. Paddling a canoe is not a hard thing, but it does take practice and people of all ages can easily paddle a canoe. In the example at the lake, the course was to go to the buoys, go out into the bay, and come back for their first trip paddling a canoe. As everyone knows the easiest method to get to the buoy is a straight line, the young people being overly ambition must have seen something very important on the other side of the inlet for most of their canoes went in that direction even though their instructor was encouraging them to aim for the buoy. It took time, some frustration (some people rather than turn just sat and look at whatever was most interesting on the side of the inlet), some education about paddling a canoe and eventually the two people in the canoe worked together to get to the buoy and on to the lake.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the ability to canoe is available to almost ages, but the ability to travel in a canoe takes some discipline. The bay on that warm day was smooth, which should have made in even easier for the young people. It is was okay they made mistakes, their travel distance was short, perhaps later this summer they will be doing an overnight canoe trip. Similarly investing is open to all ages, it does take some discipline to do. To minimize the mistakes, start with stocks that make money and pay a dividend. In this fashion as you learn, you are earning money and learning the patience of investing. After you have learned about investing then you may want to try the rapids, but it is safer and easier to stick with what you have learned. Overtime profitable companies are good investments and as long as they pay a dividend, you can spend more time on the lake canoeing.

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