One of the additions to many newspapers on Saturday is a comics in color, usually they are in black and white but on Saturday they come in color and they have their own section. Recently a comic strip was read of Beetle Bailey written and drawn by Mort Walker. Beetle is a private in the army – he goes to a store and buys a Power Bar in those days it was called a Buzz Bar. One of his buddies comes over and asks what he is eating? Beetle says the Buzz Bar – gives you energy and can cure a lot of stuff. His buddy says, You are too Gullible, those are ads are just after your money, the bar will not produce miracles it is a fake claim. Think it over! Beetle says, I think I would rather be gullible.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, sometimes we want to be gullible and pay attention to those never-ending growth rates and believe we will capture them in our investments. The past week demonstrated what goes up also comes down. All of us want to believe the hype both in products for a $1 or buying stock after all it is our hard-earned money and we are making rational decisions. In reality, there maybe some truth but not the whole truth in the advertising or the recommendations. The easiest method is to find stocks that have a definite sell point about them – if you stay with profitable companies – did they make a profit? If you buy dividend companies can they constantly pay their dividend? pick something that tells you very simply when it is time to exit and when you make it a longer term hold. If the condition no longer applies more to another alternative because the great thing about investments is there are always alternatives in the marketplace.

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