During the summer many people have extra time and novels are read. sometimes they are adventure stories, sometimes romance, and sometimes there is a little of everything. The Rule of Four written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, Dell, NY, 2005 is that sort of book. The setting is University of Princeton and a book brings the main characters together – Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has battled scholars for centuries. The context of the book is the author wrote many clues or puzzles to solve the big mystery. In was generally assumed or expected there was treasure at the end of the book and the students and professors would profit by discovering the answer. Although the book was written in Italy, the students were in the US because the libraries in the US, particularly in the universities have some of the best libraries in the world or it can be done. The trick to all the puzzles is link back to the way the author thought and the references he knew. In 500 years, what is being referred to has changed over the years. To understand the answer meant research into what was thought back at the time of the writing. The Renaissance is a great place to have any story because at that period of time – the world’s greatest artists and thinkers were in Florence. They met, they shared ideas, new ways to see the world, to see where man fit in, and it was put down on paper which meant different perspectives were automatically noticed and changed those who could see. Eventually, people who could not see or did not want to see or wanted to go back in time to what they thought was a simpler time rose to power and soon the Renaissance would move from Florence. The book is about saving those books, paintings, music, etc from those who would destroy them.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the research into finding the answers to the puzzles took weeks and months and years to nibble away and come with an answer. Eventually the answers seem to flow in days and weeks. Investing is sometimes like that, we all invest to make more money, which is a good thing. We buy a stock and it does something (goes up or down)  and we learn what risks we like, what we do not like, what makes money, what rarely makes money and what could make lots of money. It is process that everyone goes through and there is no wrong answer. In the author’s case the process led to dividend stocks which were doing better than the alternatives with less risk. The short answer is profitable companies make good investments – if you can receive a payment for owning them, a dividend, and when the market values companies at higher multiples for making money, profitable companies stocks move up. The big question is which companies will do the best? no one knows until the day is over, but a strong record of consistently earning profits to pay in dividends will have more ups than downs.

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