Throughout history there has been plunder from someone else; it many instances along the way, the ruling government approved the plunder from the opposition. After a period of time, the plunder was put in safety deposit boxes and museums. Some of the valuables was melted down, some of it to sold to others who sold it who moved it around and as fewer of the items are on the marketplace the value eventually goes up. Ever since gold or other minerals were found, the mineral had to be moved from the place they were found to places where the minerals could be molded into items which people will buy. Along the way there has been opportunity to steal, opportunities to find lost treasurers due to storms or ships sinking due to reefs; as many reasons as a storyteller can come up with. In the book The World Atlas of Treasure by Derek Wilson, Collins, London UK, 1981, an overview of the places for lost treasure are given. The primary focus is on gold and golden treasurers because many governments tied their currency to the price of gold. This means some treasures are based on myth, some on fact, and some a bit of both. The adventure is you might discover some of the treasure and you will have some great stories to tell.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there is treasure in owning these types of stocks for the companies have consistently earning profits. The idea of discovering a lost treasure or holding the winning lottery ticket has a large appeal and many people will try. Receiving lottery tickets for Christmas was done in many homes across the world and hopefully, the winners shared with the families. Sometimes the better gift is what would you do if you won story. If you own dividend paying stocks, the time frame for what would you do can be closer. As the years go by the dividend paying stocks increase in value for their dividends and capital appreciation. Be fascinated by the treasures, if you are in the area look for them, but for the long term rely on dividend producing stocks.

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

Ever since the introduction of the radio, people have been listening to music or greater variety and deciding one music type is better than the next. Often times the themes are the same but the methods are a little different. In the rock music category – the two biggest acts in the 1960’s to 1990 were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Although both came from the UK, the music represented something different to many and for years people asked do you like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones better? Both bands given the length of time people have listened to the music; people have bought the music and have been influenced by the music are in the status of great bands. For a while, the Beatles had the cleaner cut image and the Stones were rougher at the edges. Some of that is true as written by John McMillian’s book Beatles vs Stones, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2013. In the early days, the reality was the reverse, but the public image was what people saw and would comment on.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, very often in the stock market there is a choice between two companies which are seemingly the same and different – the easiest example is the Apple and Microsoft. Because we all have opinions, we all have biases; it was easier to own one or the other. Now days, the situation is reverse. There are biases in your selection, because you are a person. We tend to favour local or regional companies based on where you live. As long as you are reasonably diversified and the companies are performing at your expectations which includes making a profit, the age old question of which one is better can and should continue. Hopefully during the holiday you will be asked at the table which is better and in the spirit of the holidays find good reasons to accept the arguments. Have a great holiday.

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

If you believe the glass is half full or even better, than the movie’s title and subject matter is something you will like. In the movie, Flash of Genius staring Greg Kinnear, Universal Pictures, 2009. the character has a Flash of Genius on inventing something which is standard on all cars – the position between stop and go for windshield wipers. The rest of the movie is about actually getting paid for the invention. It is the Flash of Genius which Is the important part. We are all good at something and the more we do it, the better we become – the 10,000 hours to master a skill theme. After we have mastered something, you will search for a method to do it better which was either not done before or is something new. Technology helps breaks some of those barriers, but  trying is the journey you are on. Whether that flash of genius happens with the apple and Newton understanding the laws of gravity or whether that happens when you do a non related activity you will find the missing connection or the missing piece of the puzzle to move along your idea.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, investing means you do not have to be a genius. If the idea is to try to lose less money over the long term, then buying shares in profitable companies which pay you a dividend is easily seen as a good thing to do. Sometimes the best ideas are simple ones, not the genius ones but the ones that solve the problem. When you are investing think simple. What you will be amazed at is how often for the amount of risk you take, the simple ideas have the better returns.

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

In the USSR, prior to 1918, the country was headed and run by the family of the Romanovs with the male head called a Czar. The Czar owned much of Russia and to attend to their homes around Russia more than 30,000 servants, attendants, and gardeners worked in the households. The Russian Czars were the richest people in the world and it came to a crashing end in 1918 or did it? Prior to their end, the Czars had the biggest and most expensive collection of jewels in the world. The famed Faberge eggs are one small part of the collection. If you have seen the ballet the Nutcracker, it is set in the time of Czars for after the French Revolution the ballet world moved to Russia.

The official story from Russia is the Czar and his family were shot and buried but is that what really happened? A book called The Hunt for The Czar by Guy Richards, Doubleday & Co, NY, 1970 suggests the Czar were not shot. Besides their wealth, the other aspect of Europe at the beginning of the century was the intermarriage between the Royals of Europe. The Czar was linked to all the Royal Families and they would have been very nervous with the official report. Who would be next? Is the social scene which they all knew and loved gone forever? and what happen to the money and wealth that was not in Russia? The Czar had diversified his holdings and moved some of Russia’s gold to the US and UK. Was the gold his? or Russia’s? Courts and time meant the banks kept the property in safekeeping.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in some companies figuring out the truth of the company and its financials are a detective story. There are possibilities and some you will want to believe. With dividend paying stocks, either the company pays a dividend or it does not. If it pays and has paid over the years, your concerns are how sustainable it is. If you believe it is sustainable the mystery is over and the stock can be on your list to buy and hold for a period of time, sometimes as long as it took to discover if the Czar was killed or escape to a simpler life elsewhere.

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

We all know something about WW II in Europe and one of the things we know was Germany was defeated. But what was life after the war ended? In the US, it was the start of an economic growth with great optimism as the economy switched from a war one to peace time. The GIs came home, started families and the government sent many to college and university and made home ownership easier with veterans housing. The government had great foresight. In Europe, where the war was centred, the story is much different. The war was a different war and much of the landscape and infrastructure was bombed and destroyed. A book about the subject is called Savage Continent by Keith Lowe published by St. Martin’s Press,NY, 2012.

After the war ended, boundaries were changed to reflect the winners and losers. An example of the book was the changing of the boundaries in Poland. The eastern side became part of the USSR and parts of Germany were given to Poland. The boundary change caused a massive migration of people on the German part – over 10 million people were moved. In can be imagined 10 million Germans moving to a country (Germany) that had just lost the war and had been bombed and destroyed; it is easy to see those 10 million people suffered. Equally on the USSR side of Poland, there was a migration of people as the USSR did not want all that came with the changing of the boundary.

The other migration of people was ethnic cleansing of countries. Before the war most countries had many religions and people of many backgrounds. After the war, the cultural diversity was much less. Many countries in Europe had an official policy to allow those who they did not want to easily leave. For many people, it was much easier to leave than tolerate life from both official government and neighbours. The official government includes access to services as well as reporting crimes against you and your family. The neighbours who before the war may have been customers or townspeople turned against them for all kinds of perceived wrongs, whether they were true or not.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, reputation is very hard to keep particularly in downturns of economic cycles, profitable stocks have found ways to do so. The lesson is that is what is made easy, people will do. If it is easy and has institutional backing, even more will do. In Europe people turned both inward and used vengeance to get back at perceived wrongs. Whether those perceived wrongs were 100 years ago or last week; many myths rose from the ashes and people reacted on them. Some had truth in them, some had very little truth; some were made up to reflect an attitude. For a profit making company, to continue on for many economic cycles it had to work through the myths and truths and make profits to pay dividends.

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

We all know something about WW II in Europe and one of the things we know was Germany was defeated. But what was life after the war ended? In the US, it was the start of an economic growth with great optimism as the economy switched from a war one to peace time. The GIs came home, started families and the government sent many to college and university and made home ownership easier with veterans housing. The government had great foresight. In Europe, where the war was centred, the story is much different. The war was a different war and much of the landscape and infrastructure was bombed and destroyed. A book about the subject is called Savage Continent by Keith Lowe published by St. Martin’s Press,NY, 2012. In the book, the result of the Nazi Party being poor administrators of Europe, the people of Europe faced very hard times. In the last years of the war, the German people were on rations as food was running out or hard to get. When the war ended the situation became even a larger concern. There is a term called Scorched Earth which means burn the crops and kill the animals, this allows easier control of the land. It also means a few years have to go by before the land produces crops again. Many armies in the war practiced the Scorched Earth policy.

When the war was over, people began to move back to their former lives, if they existed. In many cases they simply did not exist anymore. When the war was on, there were people that seemed to accept the German army easier than others. It could be argued they were doing it for the greater good of the people around them, after the war those that did not accept were part of the vengeance of the public. In all the countries, after the war those in power or those who accepted the enemy their lives were turned upside down in peace time. One aspect was cutting the hair off of women. An issue  that was poorly answered is what to do about the children that were born of German fathers? In addition, when the war ended, the army were the bad guys who were trying to shoot you, the war ends – it is easy to say they are not longer the bad guys but what do you do with them? Prisoner of war camps existed and the former soldiers needed to be feed and clothed in a similar fashion as the local people who are free. How did Europe treat them? from the book, not well.

In many urban areas, the bombing was constant and cities needed to be rebuilt, but who was to do it? As everyone knows with construction projects, they take time to design and implement. Who is in charge in the meantime? It is very hard to go back to the time before the war when they simply do not exist.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, these companies have a history of surviving through many different economic cycles which makes them valuable. Besides surviving they are profitable enough to pay dividends to the shareholders. They all have bought and sold companies and subsidiaries along the way. When a company sells its subsidiary which is a good decision of the company and others take up the cause, perhaps to even run it better.

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

If you own a mutual fund one investment idea is to look at their historical distribution. Some fund companies typically pay higher in one quarter than another, one such fund that the writer owns pays more in December than during the year. Whenever you find payments that are different over a normal year, it can mean an opportunity for you. If you want to switch between the family of funds and the cost is minimal, it can be worth your while to own another fund during the year, where you expect either higher returns or consistent payments and switch to the higher historical distribution fund for the payment.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, whenever there is an uneven flow of money based on historical distributions, there maybe an easy way to make money. It will take research on how the family of funds you are invested in and the fees to switch, but it can be worthwhile to switch to funds to get the easy money.For example if the dividend fund pays higher in December, if you are concerned with market fluctuations you can move your money to monthly income fund and then switch over to the Dividend fund to capture the higher payments and switch back.

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

Sometimes when someone listens to the radio, sometimes it is background noise; other times there are exciting or relatable ideas. On a radio station which was on in the car, an interviewer was talking to the founder of StoryCorps founder David Isay whose company interviews people who talk about their lives. In many cases it is people who are older, the interview is an ability to capture some of their life experiences and it is possible to give the recording to their children and grandchildren. Thinking about it, my grandparents died when I was young, which means as I get older I have asked my uncles and aunts about them. My generation did not go to war, theirs did. What did they think? what life experiences of long marriages did they want to pass on? As we move into the holiday seasons – if you spending time with older people, including your relatives, ask them about their life experiences. Similarly a book called What I Have Learned So Far …  by Paul Bates and Al Emid, Knowledge Bureau, Winnipeg, Manitoba 2010. The authors interview people about their lives and outlines some of the lessons they have learnt along the way. Most people are not perfect, we have all made mistakes and hopefully learned things along the way. Many people, if you let them, will tell you stories to help you. The people dealt with winning, debt, disease, conflict, marriage or regular life.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the typical owner of dividend paying stocks is older in years. Buying them is to learn one of the oldest lessons in investing – it is easier to lose money than make money. If you do not lose it, over the long term you will make more. A method to limits losses is invest in profit generating companies which pay you a dividend  and because the company makes profits, the company stock price moves up over the years.

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

When you own a home, one of the many requirements is maintaining the structure of the house. The classic Honey Do list will come to mind, typically one person looks after the cleaning of the insides, the other person looks after the maintenance of the structure. As time goes on, changing the structure is considered. Books such as Fix It Before it Breaks by Terry Kennedy, McGraw Hill, NY, 2004 has a wonderful checklist which we should do. In reality, most of us check a little and hope nothing bad happens. We hope and trust the builders did a good job when building. One of the worst elements which causes damage is water – we need water to live but if the house is not protected if will find an opening and as the weather cools and heats the openings get bigger and larger repairs are needed. The Fix It book is something most owners do not have or think about when they are buying a home; it is something you tend to get after the home needs repairs. Many years ago, when people lived in the rural area, building skills were something you learned naturally. As time went on and we now live in urbanized area, many of our building skills are basic in nature, but we can do prevention.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when you buy an investment there are some investments which you can put away in the “safe” and leave for a while, while others need more constant attention. Over time you will likely have developed a checklist of what needs to be done – including to ensure the company makes a profit or developing the next million or multi million dollar idea. If you have a check list similar to your home repairs or things to do in the garden, a check list for your investments is a good idea. If you do not have a checklist, if you have an advisor have them send you one. Making money is great, saving money and not losing it helps you be wealthier in the long run.

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