Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is known around the world as the creator of the fictional character Sherlock Holmes – one of the best detectives in the world. Mr. Holmes through wit and observation would see what others missed. He uses deductive reasoning which is combined with forensic science to solve the problems. The reasoning is the interesting part because he reasons if x is observed, then likely y is true because to observe x something must have happened. All people do reasoning, most of us are not at Sherlock’s level nor do we care to be. However we all do reasoning on a regular basis whether it is on family members or people we meet on a semi regular basis. In the book The True Crime Files of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, edited by Stephen Hines, Berkley Prime Crime, NY, 2001- the author must have been sent hundreds of true crime files and ask for his advice, he reacted to a couple of files. Why only a couple, we do not know, but two in particular were reacted to. The method was to write articles in the newspaper for the newspaper of the day were similar to the function of the internet today. People read the papers and sent letters to the editor offering their views of what is happening or if there is a miscarriage of justice.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, each of us focuses on a different facet of the economy, there is no right and wrong part. After we achieve the level where we have savings, then investments come. It easier if you stick closer to the area in which you make a living or are passionate about because there is where you will tend to spend more time learning. Investing is taking what you know and seeing it in the marketplace – does it make money? if I invested would I make money? what is reasonable in the sectors that I am interested in relative to the overall markets. Just the knowledge of the sector you are involved with will allow you to make deductive reasoning. The homework is the forensic science aspect – using balance sheets and income statements. To make it easier to narrow the field start with the companies making profits and returning dividends to the shareholders. When the market goes down, the dividends still are deposited to your account. When the market rises, the profits the company makes allows for the price to continue to rise. In investing there is many choices, keeping and growing your money is the best choice and until interest rates rise, dividend stocks have been a great vehicle for your investments.

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