March and April are a perfect time to go to home shows for in April to May it is time to do. Shows or conventions are not necessarily there for you to buy something, although you can. It can be used to gain ideas for what you might do to improve your living space. The other day someone tried to sell me a gas furnace, my furnace is oil based. To buy a new one would mean to tear out the new one and for what return? Spending ten thousand to save a few hundred on the bill? Unless the furnace needs to be replaced what is the value? At the home show which was recently attended there were many examples of bringing your living outside, the problem is the home would need major renovations to accommodate the deck which means great ideas, little implementation.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when we look around at our homes, we know what we wish to renovate, in my case the new furnace would be much higher than the savings, so that is not going to be done this year, but new windows? When it comes to investing, you should be aware of what you are paying for and what seems to be too expensive. If you understand what is a bargain and what is not a bargain, you will be a better investor and can say no more times. The reality is money is made when good stocks sell inexpensively and come back to trade for higher multiples. Your task is to figure out what is which and along the way earn dividends while you think.

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

you are very curious, one of the questions you might ask is how do we get to where we are at? Most of us accept where we are at, but some ponder the question and research what the philosophers say. A easy book to start with is Eureka! What Archimedes Really Meant  – 80 Other Key Ideas Explained by Michael Macrone published by Cader Books, NY, 1994. In election cycles we all vote or should all vote, and the ideas expressed by the candidates often originated by the 80 people who include: Pythagoras, Pascal, Pavlov, Newton, Plato, Freud, Locke and others. Each ponder and some figured out why the earth and humans function they way they do. Each of the thinkers are famous and you will likely have heard or even said some of the things they do.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, most of the people were in institutions of higher learning or universities. They were paid and could ponder questions and the masses on the outside were in awe of their talents. The money is thus made in the application of the thinking, not the thoughts themselves. While most high school graduates support post secondary institution, we invest for action not thoughts. Something that can help raise sales, justify the monopoly holding, reach out to new markets. There should always be positions for great thoughts, but only invest in applications of the thought, not the thought itself.

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

In every state, there are reasonably few very wealthy people who seemingly have great influence on the economy. In the northeast of the US and into a province called New Brunswick, one of the families of concern is the Irving. Whether it is gas stations or woodlots and mills, the Irving’s have an influence on what government does and for that reason it is worthwhile to know about the family. In a book  called Irving vs Irving, by Jacques Poitras published by Viking Books, Toronto, 2014 –  two brothers decided to separate their interests in the family company. The first generation starts, the second generation expanded or vertically integrated the companies. The third generation begins the process to break apart as they have other ideas. In the story of the Irving’s the founder wanted everything together and all his sons to work together. As the sons had families with sons of various capabilities, differences of who was going to control the biggest parts of the billion dollar empire was explored in the book. Although when a billion dollar empire is taken apart with one portion of the family worth $5.6 billion and the other worth $5.5 billion, there was not too much sorrow to be had. Internally, in an effort to split the company, various projects to raise money were taken that two generations would never had happen. When a family is worth billions, the government whether state or provincial has a hard time saying no to what would make it easier for the company to be in business in their state or province.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in this case the family companies are private and is very profitable on a year to year basis. To invest in the family, is to invest in companies which support them for every once in a while, the family companies will threaten to close down and relocate to some where the ability to continuing to make profits is greater. If you live in the state, one hopes besides keeping the plant or mills operating – the wages remain constant or at least the taxes to support the infrastructure. As an investor, you want someone else to pay for the infrastructure and keep company taxes low.

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

The election guide 2008 is written by Michael Moore, published by Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2008 and was a guide to the US Presidential election. This was an easy vote for the Democrats and President Barack Obama, although with politics in the internet age the rumours and lies that normal people thought were half truths are remarkable. Mr. Moore has a title of “Ask Mike!” which people ask questions and one would think when people can surf the internet to gain great amount of information, hopefully the school system graduates an increasing number of graduates, more people have access to post secondary education – the questions which made the book – one has to wonder. Politics is the only area where the goal is to inform or have the majority of the population vote one way or another. In reality, many people will over their lifetime favour or vote in one direction, but not every candidate is the same. Sometimes very good candidates run in seemingly hopeless ridings. Billions of dollars are now spent on elections – which indicates it must be important.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as an investor you have a vested invest in who wins or what they do once they are in office. Although most of us suspect that whoever wins would do something similar as the one that lost, sometimes there really is a difference in the use of government resources which can affect people lives on a daily basis. As an investor your interests will partly rely on the status quo continuing, although there is almost change in the marketplace, which is why reading a Michael Moore book is worth considering.

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

If you love military history, then the book The Face of Battle by John Keegan, published by Pimlico, London, UK, 1976 is a must read. Mr. Keegan who taught military tactics looks at 3 battles – Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme and uses the recorded history to translate into what really happened or did it happen that way. Military history besides telling you the winner, may or may not be as accurate as you want it to be. Although history is always written by the winner’s side. When experts translate the words of the historians, sometimes it helps to be cynical because the writer of the winning side generally overlooks the errors and accents the positives. This is a good thing because with these types of battles there often is another one down the road. Your military needs good battle stories to go into the war and face the reality of it. In Mr. Keegan’s book, the 3 battles were dissected to see did history really match or how would have the leaders communicated with their regiments to follow the plan?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, with every battle there are things to learn; similar to investing you need to continuously learn. With investing looking back is perfect information; looking forward is imperfect information which means you need to protect yourself or your expectations. One method to protect yourself is to buy profitable companies which pay a dividend to you. If your expectations about the increase in price of the stock do not go as high as expected, your dividend adds to your total return.

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

At this time of the year, when the temperatures rise and the snow melts, people turn their eyes toward spring gardens. For many, they will want all the plants in after the last frost and their gardens looking great. For others there is planting of seeds and Seedy Saturday – which has an organic twist to it. The event that I attended had seeds for sale, some political activities which as an energy investor it did not concern me; and helpful hints. Sometimes the helpful hints are the ones which can generate the most ideas. If you are to plant seeds or flowers, one of the things you should do is to ensure your soil is going to continuously generate the food for the plants. It used to be people only considered 3 important items for plants – nitrogen, potassium and sulphur which is the count on the fertilizer bags; it turns out while they are very important, there are many other nutrients your plants need and the real work is done by tiny bugs. In a session by a worm provider, if you have worms in your garden, it is going to be a good garden. If you do not see worms, you need to add mulch to ensure worms do their digging and leave their worm castings or worm poop. If you add worm castings to you soil, it will automatically improve it. If you have good soil – things will grow in it.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, a number of years ago, a book was read about the value of worms and the role they play in a good soil conditions. Fertilizers will do the work, but worms do it better and you will gain consistently better results. The interaction of nature will keep the negative aspects to a minimal. In investing, you are looking for simple but effective solutions. Does the company have a monopoly or near monopoly which means prices can rise if costs rise? How does the company keep its competitors to ensure it keeps its controlling market share? Examining the right conditions of the soil or the right conditions for the company to making profits and thus paying you dividends makes your life easier.

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

For an interesting history of the tech sector or the digital revolution – the book the Innovators by Walter Isaacson published by Simon&Schuster, NY, 2014 is a wonderful read. The ideas which are society is using and developing had its start with Lord Byron. If you read poetry to your partner or lover you may have read some Byron. He had a daughter named Ada who has one of Britain’s few noted mathematicians and scientists. Ada worked with Charles Babbage on the Difference Machine – the machine the size of a room was designed to tabulate logarithms, sines, cosines and tangents. Ada was the world’s first computer programmer.

From microchips to personal computing – first through hobbyist and then through games and into the business world. In the digital age, the hobbyists came first because they were very curious, but they all had needs. It was great to have a computer, but what do you use it for? Now days the answer is almost everything, but the abilities of the first computer were not that great. Companies formed to meet the needs of the users and to reach the masses so they could go everywhere. Each of these directions are chapters in the book and it leads to the wonderful companies we have and continue to create.

People wanted something and would buy it – the first programs were developed and sold, people saw one could make a living and do very well which lead to more being done and needing to be done. This is the important element in the story, the people creating the companies were getting wealthy and it felt like they were doing very important things. The greater the wealth the creation the more people became involved to fill many new and important needs. In the marketplace, the public determines if it is a need, a want or a nice thing to have. If it is a need, the payoff can be very high.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the growth of the industry has transformed the way we all do things in our lives which is great. From an investors point of view many companies were created but few became standard to the industry to have a long and profitable corporate life. It takes skill and understanding to determine which companies will become standard. You can do the research or you can watch and wait until the use becomes the standard, then invest in it. For example Microsoft has the operating system which many companies use. As long as they keep it current, the revenues will continue to flow, but do not buy it as growth company use the multiples of a mature company.

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

For an interesting history of the tech sector or the digital revolution – the book the Innovators by Walter Isaacson published by Simon&Schuster, NY, 2014 is a wonderful read. The ideas which are society is using and developing had its start with Lord Byron. If you read poetry to your partner or lover you may have read some Byron. He had a daughter named Ada who has one of Britain’s few noted mathematicians and scientists. Ada worked with Charles Babbage on the Difference Machine – the machine the size of a room was designed to tabulate logarithms, sines, cosines and tangents. Ada was the world’s first computer programmer.

The history jumps 100 years to the 1880s when Herman Hollerith vowed to automate the US census because the last one took 8 years to put together. The IBM punch cards was developed. The next big development was in the war time – due to demands of the military digital revolution came into being. Punch cards were slow and cumbersome – how to make it easier and in 1947 the transistor was developed by 3 scientists from Bell Labs developed the transistor – they were all geniuses and they worked together. Bell Labs was a remarkable institution – it was great at inventing, but not so good at capitalizing on its inventions. Part of the reason was Bell was a regulated monopoly and did not want to risk antitrust suits and public criticisms, and its solution was to license its patents to other companies. The growth of Texas Instruments – once known for its calculator was an example. Another great example is Intel – which transformed the transistor to the microchip and had enough brains to make Intel chips the standard of the industry. The book discusses the names of the people who did the work and this makes the book a terrific read.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the first part of the digital creation is the science of doing. It took months and years to figure out how to conduct electricity through a transistor moving from vacuum tubes. It took another large leap to be able to figure how to conduct massive amounts of data through the microchips. If you are a little bit interested in the science of doing it, the book is a wonderful read. In terms of investing, the real stars of the digital age is in part two – the people who saw what the science meant and transformed it into companies the average company and then the average person would do. It often starts with companies because they have the ability to pay for what they need. Fill their need and the company is off to the races.

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

In 2008 most of the financial banks took a beating for their involvement with mortgage backed securities – the prices went to zero and had to be written off, as well as writing large cheques to the regulators which has helped the treasury of New York state and the federal government. Prior to 2008, the banks were counted on for delivering their dividends to shareholders. The world has changed and last the dividend kings were the IT or tech sector. In the article The US dividend kings: banks and techs? written by David Milstead using research from Howard Silverblatt the senior index analyst for the S&P Dow Jones Indices. Mr. Silverblatt added up the declared dividends and annualizes it – he noted the IT sector paid $ 55.5 billion in annual dividends or 14% of the S&P 500. In 2007 – financials accounted for 30% of the dividends. The following are the leaders in paying dividends

Top 10 Tech Dividend Yields in the S& P 500

1. Seagate Technology      3.97%

2. KLA-Tencor                    3.32

3. Western Union                3.22

4. CA                                   3.20

5. Xillinx                                3.12

6. Paychex                            3.10

7. Intel                                   2.97

8 Cisco Systems                  2.97

9. Microsoft                           2.95

10. Microchip Tech                2.91

The Top 10 Tech Dividend Payers in the S & P 500   in Billions $

1. Apple                               $ 11.158

2. Microsoft                              9.485

3. Intel                                      4.409

4. IBM                                      4.265

5. Cisco Systems                     3.895

6. Qualcomm                            2.693

7. Oracle                                   2.149

8. Texas Instruments                1.323

9. Hewlett-Packard                   1.210

10. Accenture                           1.188

Linking to dividend paying stocks, hopefully you know some or many of the names, if you do not, you need to broaden your searches. Quality companies come across the spectrum and the computer age is maturing. There is still many applications to be developed and capitalized, but as more mature companies one expects dividend payments rather than growth. The analysis and how much you should pay to get a return on your money becomes different. In does not mean a mature company can not have growth, but it is a wonderful bonus when it happens.

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