Staying in the year around 1500, another family which dominated the events in history was the Borgias. In a book about the Borgias written by Clemente Fusero, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1972,  the family was originally from Spain and one of the ambitious sons moved up the leadership levels of the Catholic Church to eventually become Pope. In the 1500’s, being Pope was different than it is today. The world was essentially a feudal  society which means countries were divided into estates and the owner would receive money from all the people who lived in the estate. The owner represented the people in parliament (government) and administered the lands both in terms of infrastructure and to settle disputes. In the Catholic Church at that time, the cardinals and others would receive a share from their assigned districts. The cardinals were wealthy, particularly if their country’s dominate religion was catholic, which at this time it was. Rodrigo was one of the cardinals who wanted to become Pope. How a person becomes Pope is to be elected by other cardinals. The cardinals are put in a room, the door is locked and they are told to make a decision before the door is unlocked. Often times two names become to the forefront, if the people are essentially tied, a compromise candidate is chosen. The prime reason for picking the person is their age and the expectation the person would die soon. If the death was taking too long, poison helped the result. In the meantime, the two names at the forefront can do things which the other side could support. The election of a Pope meant when someone did become Pope, they had better have a very good idea of what they want to get done.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if the above case with Rodrigo Borgia, the fact he wanted to be Pope meant time was important. It took time and age to become Pope, it was very rare to pick a younger person. Similar in investing, it takes time to accumulate money, but once you have regular dividend payments, along with capital gains the financial rewards will be advantageous. The best friend an investor can have is compound interest or using the affects of compound interest. If you can go about your daily life, and only use the interest or dividend component of your investments, every year your assets will grow.

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