Investing 102

[GregWeld]

I've reminded on many occasions for you all to "remember" when the market went up daily... and making gains was easy and fun. You want to remember those periods - when we're in a stinky market like we are right now. These stinky periods are when I LOVE the dividend. Those checks are a great antiseptic to the pain of the losses of those easy gains. For those of you that are in dividend reinvesting - they're also buying shares at lower prices automatically... bringing down your average cost - and building dividend payouts in the future.

Funny how the psyche works -- if I put a '69 Camaro up for sale - and I cut the price from 100,000 to 65,000 you'd be happy! And you'd be unhappy if I raised the price from 100 to 110,000! But not if we're talking about stocks. LOL

It's summer - stocks always suck in the summer. Add to this the possible slowing growth of China -- and a possible FED interest rate hike - and this is the kind of market you get.

I'm a buyer in these kind of markets - but I ALWAYS have plenty of cash kept on the sidelines because it can always get worse! It will help your thinking - if you tip toe in rather than dive in and then watch the shares you just bought go lower.... Keep some buying power "dry". You'll feel better about it.

I'm going to spend a week rafting the middle fork of the Salmon river.... and I won't care one bit about what the stock market is doing.... thanks to the dividends.