DO YOU WANT TO SUCCEED AS AN INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR?
Whether my approach is right for you depends entirely on what you want to accomplish.
So please determine if your goals match up with mine. I want to help you hit your target.
Whether my approach is right for you depends entirely on what you want to accomplish.
So please determine if your goals match up with mine. I want to help you hit your target.
ARE THESE YOUR GOALS? ARE YOU AIMING TO...
If these are your goals, we are on the same page.
DO YOU HAVE THESE CHARACTERISTICS?
But even if those are your goals, individual investing is not for everyone. The following
traits are important.
What qualities don't you need? You do not have to be a financial genius, good at math, a
trained economist, or have an MBA to be a successful individual investor.
OK. IF THESE ARE YOUR GOALS AND YOU HAVE THE REQUISITE
TRAITS, HOW CAN SENSIBLE STOCKS.COM HELP?
This website is informational and educational. It is designed with content that helps
you help yourself. It takes a four-pronged approach:
This book is a step-by-step guide to stock investing, suitable both for beginners and
experienced investors who want to sharpen their skills. It carries a 5-star reader rating
on Amazon.com. Features include...
This is an annual e-book. It takes the basic principles of SENSIBLE STOCK
INVESTING and tailors them to the niche of dividend-paying stocks.
Did you know that, over long time periods, the best wealth producers have not been the
hottest "new thing" companies, tech companies, or any of the sexiest areas of the
market? They have been the Steady-Eddie companies in stable businesses that
generate more cash each year than they need and pump the excess out to shareholders
in the form of dividends.
The dividends of the best companies are increased every year, providing one form of
wealth production.
Dividend investing (more specifically, dividend growth investing) is a long-term strategy
that plays out over years. It is an ideal strategy for investors of any age or stage of life.
THE TOP 40 DIVIDEND STOCKS provides:
I issue this as an e-book, because that allows me to get the information to you much
faster than traditional book publishing. The information is just a few days old when the e-
book is published. The e-book is in Adobe pdf format, easily downloaded to your
computer. You'll have it in a minute or two after ordering.
Finally, this site provides two demonstration portfolios. These are not "model" portfolios
in the sense that they make recommendations or suggest that you "do what I do."
Rather, they are two portfolios that I started while I was writing SENSIBLE STOCK
INVESTING to illustrate the principles and practical results of real-world individual
investing. I funded them with my own money, and they do not ignore the brokerage fees
and other "frictional costs" that are so often conveniently left out of so-called model
portfolios.
There are two portfolios:
Both portfolios are tracked on this Web site. You can see their current holdings and a
report card for each one here.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT--THIS SITE'S DEDICATION TO YOUR
SUCCESS AS AN INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR
I hope that the approaches described here help you hit your targets as an individual
investor.
Sincerely,
Dave Van Knapp
- Do your own stock investing. Know how to make your own decisions and
evaluate advice and "tips" you hear. - Minimize risk and maximize returns.
- Pick companies better. Not every company is worthy.
- Cut through the complications of stock investing.
- Have rationality triumph over emotion. Be fact-based.
- Learn how to "value" stocks. Not every great company is a great investment.
The fair value of a stock can be very different from its market price. - Understand the stock market.
- Build a dividend portfolio. Dividends are important both for long-term wealth-
building, or to spin out immediate income. - Know when to buy, hold, and sell. Make good decisions in a timely fashion.
If these are your goals, we are on the same page.
DO YOU HAVE THESE CHARACTERISTICS?
But even if those are your goals, individual investing is not for everyone. The following
traits are important.
- Desire to build wealth or generate income--or both
- Self-directed, with a do-it-yourself mentality and an independent streak
- Logical, objective, and disciplined (at least most of the time)
- Optimistic--neither irrationally exuberant nor defeatist in attitude
- Believe an individual investor has a chance investing in stocks
- Independent thinker, willing to question conventional wisdom
- Prudent, but willing to take some measured risks
- Open to the idea that investing can be fun
- Willing to devote a few hours a month to do your own research
What qualities don't you need? You do not have to be a financial genius, good at math, a
trained economist, or have an MBA to be a successful individual investor.
OK. IF THESE ARE YOUR GOALS AND YOU HAVE THE REQUISITE
TRAITS, HOW CAN SENSIBLE STOCKS.COM HELP?
This website is informational and educational. It is designed with content that helps
you help yourself. It takes a four-pronged approach:
- Free information
- A step-by-step guidebook on stock investing
- An annual series of dividend-oriented e-books
- Two model portfolios
- 1. Free Information
- A free Newsletter. Free subscriptions are available through a simple sign-up
process. Your privacy is protected and I never spam. - A free Article Library. This contains more than 35 articles, all written by me, on a
variety of stock investment topics. Only articles of lasting interest are stored in the
library. Many articles have been accessed thousands of times. - Introductory FAQ's. These are a great place to start if you are a newbie. There are
FAQ's on stock investing generally, dividend investing, and my Timing Outlook. - An interview with me on how all this got started and what my goals are.
- This site's mission and values. See if they match yours.
- 2. Book #1: SENSIBLE STOCK INVESTING: How to Pick, Value, and
Manage Stocks
This book is a step-by-step guide to stock investing, suitable both for beginners and
experienced investors who want to sharpen their skills. It carries a 5-star reader rating
on Amazon.com. Features include...
- A comprehensive approach to stock investing. An approach that is not tied to a
single blockbuster idea, magic formula, "#1 Rule," or secret. Rather, SENSIBLE
STOCK INVESTING uses a variety of lenses, blending the best ideas into a
practical set of principles and practices. Click here for an excerpt from the book
that introduces the three basic steps of SENSIBLE STOCK INVESTING. - Understanding the stock market. Basics that most investors ought to know, but
many do not. These aren't "Wall Street's secrets"--they are simply things to
understand if you want to be a competent investor. - A risk-controlled approach. Click here for an article that explains why avoiding
losses is vital to your overall returns. - A trademarked scoring method for identifying great companies. There are usually
clear differences between great companies and lousy ones. Click here for an
article on this subject. - Clear, jargon-free language. I write to be understood. My aim is "sophisticated
simplicity." The book is free of hyperbole, and terms of art are defined whenever
they are used. If you can understand this description, you will understand the book. - Total focus on the individual investor. SENSIBLE STOCK INVESTING
emphasizes simplicity for the time-pressed individual investor. I provide tools and
easy-to-use charts to help you translate data into actionable information. Click here
for an article on why the individual investor can succeed in stock investing. - A rational approach to stock investing. It is well-known that many investors fail
because of self-defeating emotions. Click here for an article on investor
psychology. My book shows you how to prepare for decisions before they're
needed--so you aren't forced to make them in the heat of a fast-moving market. - A straightforward way to value stocks. Recognizing what's a good price and a
bad price is an important skill in successful investing. I'll show you how. Click here
for an article on stock valuation. - Know what to do and when to do it. SENSIBLE STOCK INVESTING is laid
out beautifully and presents a step-by-step guide. Click here to see the book's table
of contents.
- 3. Book #2: THE TOP 40 DIVIDEND STOCKS: Dividend Investing for the
Long Haul
This is an annual e-book. It takes the basic principles of SENSIBLE STOCK
INVESTING and tailors them to the niche of dividend-paying stocks.
Did you know that, over long time periods, the best wealth producers have not been the
hottest "new thing" companies, tech companies, or any of the sexiest areas of the
market? They have been the Steady-Eddie companies in stable businesses that
generate more cash each year than they need and pump the excess out to shareholders
in the form of dividends.
The dividends of the best companies are increased every year, providing one form of
wealth production.
- If you re-invest those dividends, you get more shares, generating more dividends,
creating an accelerating virtuous circle of wealth production. - Or, you can draw off those dividends now and use them for current income. Your
income will grow each year as the companies raise their dividends. (The only
stocks we're interested in are those that raise their dividends every chance they
get.)
Dividend investing (more specifically, dividend growth investing) is a long-term strategy
that plays out over years. It is an ideal strategy for investors of any age or stage of life.
THE TOP 40 DIVIDEND STOCKS provides:
- A basic overview of dividend investing. Its advantages and drawbacks are
thoroughly explained. - A complete step-by-step investment guide to either get you started or help you
improve your dividend investing strategies and techniques. - A modified form of SENSIBLE STOCK INVESTING's company scoring and stock
valuation systems fine-tuned for dividend stocks. - A list of the 40 best dividend-paying companies for the year of publication. The
book does the hard work for you by sifting through hundreds of dividend-paying
companies to identify, analyze, and explain the best ones.
I issue this as an e-book, because that allows me to get the information to you much
faster than traditional book publishing. The information is just a few days old when the e-
book is published. The e-book is in Adobe pdf format, easily downloaded to your
computer. You'll have it in a minute or two after ordering.
- 4. Two demonstration portfolios
Finally, this site provides two demonstration portfolios. These are not "model" portfolios
in the sense that they make recommendations or suggest that you "do what I do."
Rather, they are two portfolios that I started while I was writing SENSIBLE STOCK
INVESTING to illustrate the principles and practical results of real-world individual
investing. I funded them with my own money, and they do not ignore the brokerage fees
and other "frictional costs" that are so often conveniently left out of so-called model
portfolios.
There are two portfolios:
- The Capital Appreciation Portfolio makes its money from stock price increases.
Dividends are a secondary consideration. - The Dividend Portfolio is devoted to the long-term dividend growth strategy
described above.
Both portfolios are tracked on this Web site. You can see their current holdings and a
report card for each one here.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT--THIS SITE'S DEDICATION TO YOUR
SUCCESS AS AN INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR
I hope that the approaches described here help you hit your targets as an individual
investor.
Sincerely,
Dave Van Knapp
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| Dedicated to the success of the individual investor |
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