What does an investor do in times like these? The market is volatile and falling far more than it has risen the last month. Do you bail? Invest in Bonds? Put your money in banks?
One strategy you can try is to pick individual stocks. What should your criteria be? I'd suggest choosing only high-quality companies (note I didn't say "stocks") with flawless balance sheets, huge cash flow, zero debt, and high yields. Are there any companies with these qualifications? I'll do some screening tomorrow to find out and I'll report back here.
Money isn't everything. It's the only thing. Wait. That's only for football.
Enjoy life. Spend time with your family.
I wrote three posts about this, depending on whether you are:
1. Starting out: http://7million7years.com/2008/10/20/making-money-101-what-to-do-today/
2. Building wealth: http://7million7years.com/2008/10/21/making-money-201-whoohoo-time-to-have-some-fun/
3. protecting wealth: http://7million7years.com/2008/10/23/making-money-301-hold-on-to-your-horses/
I'll be interested to see your list (I wonder if Kraft and GE will be on it?).
GE is certainly a behemoth! My gosh, yielding almost 7 percent, on a company that grows dividends 10 percent a year! High cash flow, pretty high margins, too.
Kraft, too, is formidable. Especially if you follow the mantra, "If you can't eat it, drink it, smoke it, or wash with it, don't buy it!"
I've found a pretty cool screening tool that I'll be using to post regular updates to this post. This is a lot of fun!
Let's just say that right now, at the top of my list, is a company with a single-letter symbol, beginning and ending with "T" -- never thought I'd say that, but it's about time this company made me some money -- I worked for them and didn't see much!!!