The stories of countries is the story of people who tried to seek out new opportunities in the land they live in and make it better. Sometimes the better is for them as opposed to someone else; sometimes the better is for the vision they believe in; and sometimes the better is for everyone. One of the tasks in looking at the history of any country is how to organize it and getting that right leads to an interesting book. In the book The Men Who United the States by Simon Winchester, published by HarperCollins, NY, 2013 the organization has followed classical eastern lines. The organization is wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

The earliest explorers were confronted with the ancient forest; paddled in wooden boats, kept warm by building fires and made wooden homes. Once the outlines of the country were formed what is inside it needed to be discovered the riches of the land to grow and what is underneath the land. Water  is for travelling on the waterways and for power. With the invention of engines was the employment of heat. Finally metal which is in the copper of the telegraph, the steel wire of the telephone and a host of other devices. With these 5 themes – the people behind them make interesting stories and fit well.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, similar to the demands of Mr. Winchester to find themes to organize, as an investor you need to find relatively simple methods to organize the continual data that flows to you. Today, we have access to greater and greater information through the internet however the data can make life more complicated – what to do and when to do it? In the case of Mr. Winchester he found the themes and then the book followed relatively easy. If you invest in dividend paying stocks, an easy theme is the company profitable and can it continue to pay and increase its dividend? If yes then you can move to other questions, if no find an alternative company. In many methods business is more competitive, continually changing and more complex which means you need to find simple methods to keep yourself on track – in some companies the free cash flow; in the case of utilities the government regulations of increasing rates.

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