At the beach before Labour day, the young children were building sand castles by the water’s edge and it was something people have been doing for generations. Many of the kids castles were simple in nature – use a bucket, fill it with sand and then use your imagination. On a different scale, there are very talented folks who build beautiful sand castles for competition and to attract the locals to a beach festival. If you ever are in the area, dropping in to see them is a worthwhile use of your time.

Going back to the kid’s creations, often with the help of a parent and you never know who is having the most fun. Sometimes the parents would display a perfect mound of sand then their child would quickly change the clean edges with the use of their shovels. Later the castles were built and the time is to leave, the waves will come and reclaim the castles. Castles built on sand do not have a strong foundation, either the next day or the next week, the waves will go on to the shore and the castles will disappear. Everyone building sand castles expect this to happen.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when you examine your portfolio of investments what material are they built on? If you are a normal person, you first put money into stocks with companies you expected to go up 5 times their value and more, and that might have happened. Some people seemingly make money on lower priced stocks. Another method to make money is buying companies that pay a dividend and  are profitable. Those two elements allow for a strong foundation in the future and will make you money with limited risk taking. The companies stocks may go up and down, but they tend to go in the long run and along the way, because they are profitable they pay a dividend or income to you.

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