Home
>
Stocks & Mutual Fund
>
A Personal Stock Market Investment Philosophy

A Personal Stock Market Investment Philosophy

∙ Make every investment in the stock market a long-term investment.

My Mother worked as a teller in a small bank in Dover, New Jersey. The name of the bank was called The Dover Community Bank. While working at the bank (she eventually became a branch manager) she enrolled in the bank's dividend reinvestment plan, making purchases of the stock through pay-roll deductions. She continued purchasing the stock through the years, having the dividends from her shares in the bank reinvested into more shares every quarter. By the time she left the bank (in the early seventies) she had accumulated around 300 shares of The Dover Community Bank.

My Father, when he retired, had the dividends from those shares sent home ? to help ends-meet. When my Dad passed away at age 80, my brother and I inherited over 7,600 shares of The Bank of New York, all originating from those 300 shares of what was once called The Dover Community Bank.

From this personal experience grew an investment philosophy that all stock market investments in a security should be purchased with the intent of providing dividend income to help ends-meet during retirement, with the understanding that no one can successfully retire without financial freedom. So every investment now in a security is purchased with the intent of holding that security (and adding to it during the years) until the dividend income from that security is ample enough to ease the loss of income from retiring from my job.

∙ Make every investment in the stock market provide you with an ever-increasing cash dividend for the rest of your life.

With the philosophical investment approach of holding a security position forever, what criteria should I be looking for in that security? Certainly dividend income ? that's a given! And since I never intend to sell the security, capital gains may not even be an issue.

I would argue that a company that just pays a dividend isn't good enough. Instead, I will only purchase those companies that have a long history of raising their dividend every year. This will eliminate a whole bunch of risk. It would eliminate the possibility that the company is 'cooking their books;' after all, the money has to be there to pay the shareholder. And because this company has been raising their dividend every year for many years, it eliminates the risk of investing in a start-up company that may not even be around in a year or so.

Also, the rising dividend every year would help off-set the risk of inflation and the risk of a lower stock price during the year would actually accelerate my income from the security.

Since I would want my position in the stock to grow through the years, thus increasing my dividend income, all dividends would be reinvested back into the stock, until retirement. A lower stock price during the year, therefore, would allow the dividend from the company to purchase more shares, at a higher dividend yield, and would simply accelerate my dividend income.

∙ Diversify into no more than twelve different companies.

Owning shares in twelve companies is plenty. It would provide the diversity to sleep well at night, and provide a cash dividend every week of the year. Start by owning three companies, and build from there. Determine how many shares you want of each company before moving on to the 4th, 5th, and 6th. Invest in sets of three different companies at a time, until twelve are owned.

∙ Persevere

Success in the stock market is not so much derived by buying a company's stock at the lows, but is almost guaranteed successful through dollar-cost-averaging over the years. One of the most powerful methods of investing in the stock market is having the perseverance to continue adding shares to your stock positions over the years, through reinvested dividends and quarterly infusion of funds, be it 50 dollars, or 100 dollars a month. Persistence, persistence, persistence, and your stock market investment philosophy will become unbeatable!

To read the PREFACE from the book 'The Stockopoly Plan- Investing for Retirement' visit: http://www.thestockopolyplan.com

Charles M. O'Melia is an individual investor with almost 40 years of experience and passion for the stock market. The author of the book The Stockopoly Plan ? Investing for Retirement; published by American-Book Publishing. You can invest in the book at: http://www.thestockopolyplan.com

You have permission to publish this article either electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. Please email to mailto:charles@thestockopolyplan.com

best cleaning company Glencoe ...

In The News:

Uber teen accounts now feature live video streaming from the driver's camera, but encrypted recordings stay on Uber's servers for up to 14 days.

Router firewalls and software firewalls serve different roles in protecting your home Wi-Fi from unwanted traffic and suspicious connections.

A Chrome extension with 70,000 users and a 4.7-star rating began injecting fake update warnings after a threat actor acquired and weaponized it.

Amazon's Alexa+ rolls out free to Fire TV devices across the U.S., but hands-free microphones and stored voice data raise key privacy questions.

Meta's new teen accounts settlement sets a default two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, plus night mode and school mode restrictions.

The CareCloud data breach exposed Social Security numbers, banking information and medical records belonging to more than 3.75 million people.

Waymo reveals its custom 5-nanometer chip and dual computing systems designed to take over instantly if the robotaxi's primary computer fails.

Identity theft now includes account takeover, phone hijacking and payment card exposure. Here's what to look for in identity theft protection services.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

The FBI and Justice Department seized domains tied to QScan and QTRouter, tools allegedly used by China-linked hackers to breach NASA and other agencies.

Uber Eats drone delivery launches later this year through a Zipline partnership, starting in Dallas and Houston with a goal of one million daily flights.

Medicare Open Enrollment scams start with data broker targeting months before October. Learn why August is the time to remove your personal info.

The World Humanoid Robot Games' crashes show how far the technology still needs to go to be useful, "Survivor" reality TV star and robotics scientist Christian Hubicki says.

X-Humanoid's TianGong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, beating last year's winner by more than half.

A tap-to-pay charity scam is turning small $15 or $20 donations into charges of nearly $5,000, with victims losing thousands before they notice.

Kurt Knutsson shares seven emergency preparedness lessons from surviving Hurricane Katrina inside a New Orleans hotel as conditions turned desperate.

A contractor stored credentials in a Google Doc set to "Anyone with the link," and Google Search autocomplete eventually surfaced the password string.

New Orleans 911 uses Carbyne AI to triage repeat auto crash calls, but strict limits keep human call-takers in control of all other emergencies.

A single card skimmer can generate $1 million in stolen funds, and Secret Service video shows criminals installing them in under two seconds.

ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google now use memory, connected apps and past chats to personalize ads and responses in ways most users overlook today.

MagicalAuth by Glide.id uses cryptographic SIM credentials to verify bank logins without sending SMS OTP codes that scammers can intercept or phish.

A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging Usain Bolt's record.

An AI agent using Claude AI canceled another person's gym booking after finding a security flaw in the reservation system's authorization checks.

Trump signed a memorandum allowing vetted private U.S. companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations under oversight.

Your Social Security number appeared in a breach, but exposure and identity theft are not the same. Here's how identity restoration actually works.

A Personal Stock Market Investment Philosophy

Stocks & Mutual Fund