[GregWeld]

Trey ---

Your thought process is right on the money... and that is really what investing is all about. NOBODY can pick the exact right company or exactly perfect sector/s to invest in. The key is to do exactly what you're doing.... All good names that you understand - you've done the comps - and now the only choice is which is the right one for YOU. One guy buys Exxon - the other guy buys Shell... if all things are fairly equal - you go with the one where you shop and do business with. Because in the end -- you're an OWNER of that company. You bought a piece of it. So if you're going to buy a company - shouldn't you buy the one you like personally? SIMPLE AS THAT.

What that does is gives you a peace of mind... and you're not freaking out over every little hiccup in the stock market.

I just bought Conoco (COP) - an initial smallish amount of shares. I'm a Chevron customer... and I might buy some of them as well.

Now to answer the growth and dividend question. The key metric for me is the TOTAL RETURN... and you can find those numbers for comparison sake. Usually for the last 1-3-and 5 year period.

So let's do a total return FIVE YEAR comp:

Chevron -- 80.9%

Conoco -- 27.3%

Exxon -- 29.7%

++++++++

Whole Foods -- 54.8% --- but the THREE YEAR is 642.1%

Costco -- 61.1%

Walmart -- 44.2%

++++++++

Coke -- 65.4%

Dr Pepper/Snapple -- no 5 year since it's a merger -- but 3 year is 137.6%

++++++++

Yum brands -- 122.4%

McDonalds -- 163.2%



Really - could you have gone very far wrong with ANY OF THESE?? With the exception of the Chevron where you'd be a lot farther ahead -- they would have all been good investments.