The New York Stock Exchange ended higher in 2013 and that is a reason to celebrate the end of the year. Happy New Year’s!!!. With higher stock prices many pension funds are better funded and that helps millions of people. Higher stock prices means companies can go into the market to issue shares to grow their businesses. Next year, you never know, but most people will not predict the markets will not rise as much as the past two years when the S&P 500 was up 45%. For months, the Federal Reserve Bank has been inching towards less tapering of its stimulus program and with stronger evidence of the housing market stabilizing and even growing, there are more voices for  the tapering to begin. When that action happens, there should be a rise in interest rates which is great news for savers.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, it is highly likely the strongest capital gains have been made or there are fewer undervalued stocks – those stocks that are trading at multiples lower than peers. At the moment, the S&P 500 is trading at 17.4 times earnings, versus 14.2 times a year ago. If you own stocks, you always have a variety of choices – buy, sell and hold. It is an easier decision if the company pays a dividend, then you can ask how secure is the dividend? knowing if the stock price falls, the yield on the dividend goes up. Then your problem is do you have the dividend go into your account or reinvest it to buy more shares? If the buzz world of the 2014 is to be defensive, one of the best defensive (and offensive) moves is to always try to buy quality companies which pay a dividend and you will be ready to play on both sides of the field,

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