It looks like the customary beginning-of-the-month rally was on
a two-day delay as we saw a big jump in the indices this morning.
It will interesting to see how we close the day, as the finish is
often more telling than the open.
I'm really not sure what else would be causing the rally, but
investors certainly won't complain. It's interesting to see how
MetLife (
MET
) rallied today after the insurer's large share offering. That news
had sent MET shares lower just yesterday. We are also saw a bounce
for Sotheby's (
BID
) and Joy Global (
JOYG
), which had dropped earlier in the week following their earnings
results. Wall Street upgrades helped HMO giants UnitedHealth (
UNH
) and Wellpoint (
WLP
). Be sure to check out our latest
"Top
50 Dividend Stocks on Our Watchlist"
post we published earlier today. As I mentioned at the top, not
sure why the big pop, especially for the transports which gained
nearly 2.5%, with oil down only $.32 at the close. Huge day for
industrial stocks, including a couple of names we like -
Caterpillar (
CAT
), and Deere (
DE
).
A new report by consulting firm Mckinsey & Company says the
average American family faces a 37 percent shortfall in the income
they will need in retirement. Another study out from the Center on
Retirement Research finds that Social Security benefits will
replace just 28 percent of a recipient's pre-retirement income in
2030, on average, down from 39 percent in 2002. The numbers don't
lie as key data points like these are warning signs for individuals
who have not begun to make the proper financial adjustments. These
findings are affecting many different age groups, so understand the
problem is wide in scale. For readers that have been on top of
their game, taking advantage of maxing out retirement
contributions, I congratulate you. Now just make sure you are
invested properly! For the many others, this is the time to start
the engines and get to it.
The proportion of individuals who continue to work after age 55
reached a record high this year. Some 40.2 percent of Americans age
55 and older participated in the labor force in 2010, a number than
has increased steadily since 1993 when just 29.4 percent of older
Americans worked, according to an Employee Benefit Research
Institute analysis of Census Bureau data. This upward trend is not
surprising and is likely to continue because of workers' need for
access to employment-based health insurance and for more earning
years to accumulate assets in defined contribution (401(k)-type)
plans. I personally want to have the choice whether I want to work
when I reach my retirement years. Knowing how I am, I doubt I will
ever stop "working" per se, but I want to pick and choose the
projects I want to be involved in out of excitement and love for
what it is I am doing, and not because I need my employer's health
benefits.
Everyone has the ability to create their own future. Many are
not born with special talents, but instead acquire these skills
from hard work, perseverance, and not being afraid to fail. Throw
in the willingness to continue to learn and you have the elements
required to achieve greatness at some point of your life. Lastly,
once you figure out where your special talent lies, stick to that
area and just dominate it as much as possible. Being fairly good at
five different things is fine, but being the best in a specific
category puts you on another playing field. I am trying to get my
kids to understand this as they go through the different phases of
their life. Whether they are playing sports or taking different
electives in school, I am hoping to guide them through identifying
their strengths and weaknesses. Now I do want them to improve on
their weaknesses, but at the end of the day, hoping they can
self-evaluate to what their passions are and what areas they can
stand out in.
I want to end today's newsletter by reiterating that investing
is not a one-day hit-and-run event. It is, as I always tend to say,
like taking care of a garden. If you begin to neglect the garden,
it won't be long before the weeds sprout up everywhere and the
harvest becomes less and less productive. Don't ever get bored.
Stay methodical, look for opportunities, and remain on course by
putting funds to work in quality dividend-paying stocks. We're
constantly honing our
"Best Dividend Stocks" List
to include only names we would either initiate a position in or
even add to existing positions. It's also a good idea to begin to
use more and more of your savings if you can afford to, and start
putting it to work for your retirement or other big event in your
life. Finding the right strategy for investing is essential (and we
feel dividend investing is the best possible solution for the vast
majority of everyday investors). Putting what you've learned about
investing into practice is the second step. We advocate investors
develop a monthly system of putting money to work in your brokerage
accounts. Automate this process as best you can, so you remove any
barrier of thinking whether you want to skip a month or two if the
market is pulling back. Investing isn't a sprint, it's a marathon.
Veer off course, and your road to financial success will get
longer.
Our new dividend data system, which will include data for
several thousand additional dividend stocks (including preferred
shares, closed-end funds, etc.) is getting close to being live. I
want to thank all our great subscribers for patiently waiting as we
get set for this major data upgrade. I look forward to every new
investing day as I also know that we continue to attracts lots of
new people to our site every day. The challenge to please many
investors is enormous, but you can see by our consistent results we
don't ever get complacent with what has been achieved, because we
know it's always about what's coming up ahead. Is it time to narrow
our investment choices? Is the market going to reward growth or
value? Whatever it is you can bet we will be all over it.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow! P.S. Please pass
this e-mail on to someone you think can use some financial
motivation.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.