Dividend Aristocrats

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One of our members came across this article from Lifehacker about different conservative investment strategies, including an interesting class of stocks, known as Dividend Aristocrats. These are stocks that have a great track record of increasing dividends. ATT, which we purchased for the sole purpose of its dividends, fits into this category. We are always looking for a potential buy, and this may be a good avenue for us to pursue. As a side note, it would be nice to find a Dividend Aristocrat that also would balance out our Healthcare or Consumer Discretionary sectors, as we are always looking to keep a nice balance. 

One of those dividend stocks we have our eye on, FTR, is something we looked at back in in September of 2013. We didn't end up buying it, because we felt it would have been redundant in our portfolio. That ended up being a missed opportunity. It might benefit us to more arrive at decisions a little more quickly. We've tended to deliberate ourselves out of a buy on more than a few occasions. At that point in time, not buying FTR fit into our investment strategy, and now it is up in an up world, and hindsight being what it is, etc. 

On another note, one of our members received a framed share of Apple stock as a wedding gift several years ago. Although this is THE actual document, it would be a good idea to look into an electronic record of this, in case something happened. It may be the case that the share has to be mailed in for verification. Also, since Apple pays dividends, these could be set to be reinvested in more shares (or portions of shares), which although small, are still something. 

Profit!