In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of Daedalus who was an inventor and at one time or another offended the King. The King put him and his son in jail, while in jail Daedalus began to study the flights of birds. He studied the feathers made some wings and they worked as he and his son flew out of jail. The young man was intoxicated with his abilities to fly and decided to head for the sun. The sun’s heat melted the wax and Icarus fell to the seas only to perish. His father saw what was happening but was powerless to help, he flew to safety and retired the wings.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when we are young and believe we can conquer the universe, we often buy stocks at low prices. Once in a while one goes up in value and visions of being a master of the universe will appear. The good advice is to learn to take some profits and let it ride so when the stocks invariably go down, you have made money. The lesson is easy to say, it is much harder to implement. With dividend paying stocks, although one expects the price to rise, often times the percentage rise per year will not give you masters of the universe feelings. However if you wait or have patience in a few years not only will the price have risen you will have collected dividends along the way and your wealth will be on the way to making you a master of universe with staying power. Learn the simple lessons and Happy New Year.

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