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Tue. Dec. 22, 2009

Best Stocks For 2010

I always enjoy this time of year. The Christmas music, decorations, family gatherings, holiday plays and stock picks. Stock picks? Yes, ’tis the season for stock predictions! Virtually every financial writer will pen an article selecting his or her top picks for the upcoming year. I enjoy reading them and the logic behind the picks. As a long-term buy and hold investor, generally most aren’t useful for me; nevertheless, I find them entertaining and sometimes there is a gem to be found.


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Tue. Nov. 24, 2009

7 Dividend Stocks To Take The Emotion Out Of Investing

Deep-down in my soul, I am a contrarian. The third quarter market run-up converted most of the great dividend stock buys into ‘ok’ buys (at best). As September came to a close, I felt a sense of excitement entering October. This is the month that stocks have traditionally gone on sale. I was prepared to make a double allocation (or more) depending on the level of the markets decline. It didn’t happen.  Once again, investor emotions drove the market in an unpredictable direction.


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Wed. Nov. 11, 2009

7 Dividend Stocks To Slay The Wall Street Giants

Driven by computers that cost more than the average person will earn in their lifetime the investment markets move at light speed. To keep pace hedge funds, mutual funds, institutional investors and multi-billion dollar money managers spend large sums of money on high-tech tools to give them an edge. Throw in some illegal insider trading from big names in the industry and it leaves you wondering what chance does a small individual investor have?


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Wed. Oct. 21, 2009

8 Dividend Stocks With The Right Stuff

What makes a good dividend stock? Every dividend growth investor is looking for a stock that will increase its dividend each and every year at a rate that makes the stock a better investment than fixed income alternatives. I have found that stocks that are able to do this share some common characteristics.
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Wed. Oct. 7, 2009

10 Best U.S. Dividend Stocks

In everything we do, we always want to be the best or be associated with the best. You never hear fans yelling, ‘We’re number 2, we’re number 2′, while holding two fingers in the air.  The same is true when selecting dividend stocks.

This is an article that I started to write several times, but would always stop after getting mired in the details. My natural tendency is make every question an analytical exercise and solve it by modeling and crunching numbers.

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Tue. Oct. 6, 2009

Three Dividend Stocks With A Perfect Risk Score

A good system continues to improve itself. I maintain an extensive database with a minimum of 10 years of information on each of the 110+ stocks that I track. This data is gathered from various sources deemed reliable.  Most data is generic and can be pulled from various sites. That is except some S&P risk and quality information (RQ).


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More on this topic (What's this?)
Top US Dividend Stocks to Accumulate Now
Where are the original Dividend Aristocrats now?
Read more on Risk, S&P 500 (SPX) at Wikinvest
Tue. Sep. 22, 2009

How Much Money Will You Need For Retirement?

How much money will you need for retirement? This obviously is very important question, but also a very difficult question to answer. There are many factors and assumptions that go into estimating the income that will be needed in retirement. With so many estimates and assumptions, there is a high probability the estimated number will be incorrect.


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More on this topic (What's this?)
The Math of Retirement; Not Good
Read more on Retirement at Wikinvest
Mon. Aug. 31, 2009

PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) Dividend Stock Analysis

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net August 24, 2009.

Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:

Company Description: PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo) is a global snack and beverage company. The Company manufactures, markets and sells a range of salty, convenient, sweet and grain-based snacks, carbonated and non-carbonated beverages and foods.

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Fri. Jul. 3, 2009

Nine Stocks Giving Shareholders A Raise In The Second Quarter

In 1985 I graduated from college and took my first job as a staff accountant with a $21,000 annual salary. Now I am over the same department that I was hired into and entry level staff accountants start with a base salary of $56,500 per year. That equates to a 4.2% annual increase. Just as employees expect an annual raise, so do dividend investors.


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