This Sunday is the championship game of the NFL Football game and it is prudent to consider companies that benefit from the game. The important aspect of the game it is one of the few venues left for mass marketers. The number of people that will watch some or all of it, tends to be very high. Giving the high expected viewership, the advertising will be some of the best the industry offers. The half time show will be a spectacle, hopefully the game will be entertaining, and the host city New Orleans will benefit from the festivities. Some companies will benefit from the Super Bowl, although it is one of many events. Similarly some companies benefit from Valentine’s Day. One group of companies that come to mind for the Super Bowl is beer companies – the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage.

Company            Market Cap   P/E     Revenue/Gal     Profit Margin   Dividend Yield

name                      billions $        %               $                      $                  %

Ambev                 140.01          28.97        136.92              43.62            2.89

Molson Coors           8.15           10.73       182.05              35.02             2.84

Boston Beer             1.86           32.29        175.92              22.65            0

SAB Miller                77.16          17.30         70.78              17.87           2.15

Anheuser-Busch      148.57         20.66         97.77            14.66            1.76

Source Wickham Investment Counsel Inc. Bloomberg

Linking to Dividend Producing Stocks, in most categories including the beer business it is possible to enjoy yourself and receive a dividend at the same time. The above list shows some of the companies to give an indication of size and profitability. There is always more research to do, in the beer industry tasting can easily be done. For the Super Bowl, all the beer companies do marketing which means many bars are decorated with Super Bowl items. Investing can be fun and profitable.

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

Invariably many people will go out for meals, a number of years ago most of the meals went to independent or “mom and pop” stores meaning Mother and Father spent much of their time running the store. Now people often go to chain stores such as McDonald’s and many others. There are good decisions to eating at both, for remarkably few people complain about not getting good value at the chain stores. The “dive” tends to be a store that has not changed its interior design in years, but it is clean, and the food is very good. The rent was relatively inexpensive, meals are good and the restaurant knew who it is catering to.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the restaurant was successful because it knew who it was catering to as it offered good value to the customers. When you buy a dividend paying stock, you should know who does the company cater to and what it offers. In this way as the company changes as companies invariably do, you will know if the company continues to offer good value. Buying a dividend producing stock does not mean the company does not change, what it does mean the companies has and keeps a market share where it offers both good value and high margins to continue to pay dividends.

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

Last evening as the writer was coming home, a runner passed me, not sure what the person was training for, but it was a nice evening for a run. Investing is similar to running, there is preparation or stretching before the run, for investing you need to do  reading or research. Then there is a direction for the run – if you left your home for a 5 mile run which direction would you go? with investing, you need to have an idea of where you want to go up besides with more. The sprinters are the day traders looking for a quick entry and exit. There are marathon runners whose time horizon for training is months, similar to value investors whose time horizons are years. Most people fit something in between sprinters and marathon runners. Just about everyone has a story about buying for a short term horizon, the stock went up, then down and now it is a long term investment. With running, as long as you can run there are no bad decisions – running is good, running outdoors is great, and while you are running the other decisions about food and health just naturally seem to fall into place.

Linking to dividend producing stocks, while there are short term strategies, buying the stock to take advantage of a dividend, most strategies are for the longer term. The reason for the long time horizon is to take advantage of both the dividend payment and over the years as the company continues to pay dividends (and increase them)  the shares will be higher and you will have capital gains. One of the reasons why dividend producing companies work is due to the company paying a dividend, this act allows you to lose much less money when compared to those stocks that you had expected to sell in a short period time but went downwards. Limiting your losses and receiving an income is a great method to preserve and increase your wealth.

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

As soon as you make money, you have choices. Since it is your life, the choices you make are good ones, but not all choices are the optimal ones. In order to have the optimal ones, you sacrifice something. Sometimes the trade off is worth it, sometimes the trade off is not so good, but there are always different ways at looking at things.

In our society most of us have debt for our lifestyles and income do not always coincide. If you have no debt – congratulations and as you live your life as long as it is good, that is the best way. For the average person, the optimal choice is to look at what it costs to pay off the debt and what you need to earn if you do not pay off the debt. An example is if you have a loan at 4% and are in the 30% tax bracket, how much do you need to receive before paying off the loan is a good idea?

For every dollar of the loan you pay off is worth the interest cost, technically you earn 4%. If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will be paying off the loan with after tax dollars or with 70% of your income.  The formula is  4.0 is divided by .7  = 5.7%. or if you can make more than 5.7%, it is technically better to invest. If you are making less than 5.7%, the best economic choice is to pay off the loan. If the loan is 15% then 15 divided by .7 equals 21.4%. Being debt free is a very good thing, but there are choices to be made.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, on a dividend yield basis, most make dividend stocks make less than 5.5 % although the total return can be higher. It is always good to know the ideal optimal answer because life has choices. In the world of financial planning, after you make the basics, there are choices to make and we all have reasons why we do or did something. The formula above is a quick method to show want versus need can be expensive. On the other, perhaps you enjoy life more and as long as you can  maintain it, you made a good decision.

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

In many people’s lives after marriage, the two biggest investments are the home to live in and the car. In an ideal world, if you choose a good area to live in and it stays good for the next 50 years plus, then the house will gain value. In terms of the car, not long after you come home with it, the value begins to go down quickly. However if  you have a 20 year plus version of the same car and it is it good working order, the value rises. For cars that are mass marketed to thousands, at 20 years they will not be many left because most were not designed to last that long. The older version is more valuable because to a wide selection of the general public, they have memories of the car. It can be dates, independence, trips, making decisions, family, friends, and everything in between. Those memories translate into rising prices.

Linking to dividend stocks – the issue is over time the cars became valuable.With dividend paying stocks they also grow in value over time, with the extra benefit of regular payments to your bank account or to buy more shares. Over time as the company continues to make money and pay dividends, the compounding affect takes place and your shares increase in value. As you do your search for good companies to invest in, the number of years of payment of dividends allows you to see the company is profitable and continues to provide the needed goods and services it provides at a healthy margin.

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

In the world of the stock market. the greatest focus is what will go up? it is easier, it makes money for those who sell the shares and those who own the shares? but the focus is will the stock rise? Apple reported their earnings and last year was a great year for them, revenues of $ 54 billion, profit of $ 13 billion and they sold many ipads and  iphones. The problem with growth stocks is what will they do this year? will the stock price increase? will they sell as much or more than last year? or will the competition and there is great competition among the top tier companies push down margins (margins have been pushed down from 44% to 38%) and will Apple will sell less. If they sell less, but still a substantial amount, should the stock be valued as a growth stock?

Linking to dividend producing stocks, the difference with the analysis of dividend stocks is the first question is the dividend safe? will the company earn enough or grow the dividend? When the answer is yes, then the questions can examine will the stock price grow? All stock prices tend to trade in a range unless something substantial changes for example the company sells a major division to refocus on a core holding, what opportunities will it pursue? in the case of resource companies has the raw material increased in price? if they were making money at the lower price, they should be making even more at a higher price of the raw material. You can begin to do all sorts of permutations, but if you focus first on the dividend whether Apple makes $13 billion or $10 billion as long as it makes money to pay its dividends is a different way to focus on whether you should buy Apple or something else.

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

US President Obama officially started his second term of office and it is a reasonable to look back on his first term. In a nutshell, the first time the President won the race he wond by being hopeful. For those of us who follow politics, the first campaign was a refreshing wonderful change that just maybe, future campaigns were also going to be hopeful ones. According to reports, 4 years ago while the President was dancing around Washington, the opposition side made a battle plan to say no or delay anything the President was recommending. The hopeful President starting using his political capital without being cynical enough, he truly believed the words from the campaign. Then he ran into the opposition and the delays and nos came fast and furious which ended up in the last Presidential election being more nasty and costly than any previous campaign. The hopeful political way was long gone, but the President won a second term. This time the President should know how Washington really works.

Linking to dividend producing stocks, unlike Washington politics, most of the time shareholders are hopeful because the company has a strong competitive stance from which it leaves the starting gate. This competitive stance has a near monopolistic structure but there is competition to keep the company on the straight and narrow. In Washington which is generally anything but hopeful, often times by doing nothing, it helps the most. By doing nothing, leaders do not talk about changing the laws which in some cases helps the dividend producing stocks. While, it is hoped President Obama does whatever drove him to become involved in politics in the first place, as the US economy begins to show more and more signs of recovery, it is also hoped he does not derail any of the stocks you may hold.

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

Whether you own or rent, invariably there is a room or two you would like to do something with. In the the writer’s case it was the kitchen, over the Christmas holidays the room was cleaned and painted. Originally the action was to be a cleaning, but along the way paint was added and soon the kitchen was painted and it looks good. This action is similar to many home repairs, a small correction grows to more work and that is why most of us do not do all the time. Renovation seemingly has more tangents involved and most of the time, we are missing a tool or two, which causes a run to the hardware store. When you get there, other projects come into being and the cycle is repeated.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, fortunately for this group multi purposes is a really good thing. You can buy for the long term growth of the stock price or the continual growing dividend and you would be correct either way. When the stock goes up you look good, when the dividend gets paid, you look even better.

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

In the neighbourhood the writer lives in, similar to many neighbourhoods there are dog walkers. People who have a dog as a pet and need to take the dog for a walk for exercise and to clean their bowels. The dog walkers develop a routine with their dogs for walking. Every morning or evening or something in between – it allows for a walk, sometimes a chat, the ability to observe what is happening in the neighbourhood and other good things. The dog walkers are an important part of the daily activities in the neighbourhood.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, similar to dog walkers routine,  the payment of the dividend is a good thing. Consistently coming to set the calenders by and reflecting the good of what the company is in business for. To service its customers and make money for its shareholders.

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