When he buys a stock, Warren Buffett places more emphasis on one factor above almost any other. Since 1986 he has mentioned this single trait more than 20 times in his annual shareholder letters. He calls it “essential for sustained success.” However, you won’t find it listed on a company’s balance sheet. Its value doesn’t rise and fall with the market. And even if a company reports great earnings, the worth of this one advantage still can’t be calculated. #-ad_banner-# But that doesn’t keep it from being a company’s most valuable possession. Take the nasty bear market of 2008 and… Read More

When he buys a stock, Warren Buffett places more emphasis on one factor above almost any other. Since 1986 he has mentioned this single trait more than 20 times in his annual shareholder letters. He calls it “essential for sustained success.” However, you won’t find it listed on a company’s balance sheet. Its value doesn’t rise and fall with the market. And even if a company reports great earnings, the worth of this one advantage still can’t be calculated. #-ad_banner-# But that doesn’t keep it from being a company’s most valuable possession. Take the nasty bear market of 2008 and 2009. From its peak to trough, the S&P lost more than 55%. No investment completely avoided the downfall. Well, almost no investment. Of the 500 stocks in the S&P, only nine made money during that period. Of those nine stocks, six of them (two-thirds) had this advantage. But this advantage also helps these stocks beat the market in uptrends, too. After all, Buffett has made billions thanks to companies with this trait. So what single advantage can capture the attention of Warren Buffett… help a stock beat the market in an uptrend… and help it fall less in a downtrend?… Read More

What do Campbell’s Soup, Johnson & Johnson and Deere & Co. all have in common? All three companies have survived and thrived through two world wars, the Great Depression, countless financial panics and periods of booms and busts… and for more than 100 years, they’ve continually generated wealth for their owners. These companies survived, while hundreds of other companies came and went along with hard times. All three of these names, alongside some others, owe their good fortune to what I call a “legacy asset investment,” which has allowed them to throw off huge dividends and return capital to shareholders… Read More

What do Campbell’s Soup, Johnson & Johnson and Deere & Co. all have in common? All three companies have survived and thrived through two world wars, the Great Depression, countless financial panics and periods of booms and busts… and for more than 100 years, they’ve continually generated wealth for their owners. These companies survived, while hundreds of other companies came and went along with hard times. All three of these names, alongside some others, owe their good fortune to what I call a “legacy asset investment,” which has allowed them to throw off huge dividends and return capital to shareholders for decades — regardless of interest rates, the economy or commodity prices. It’s also helped generate massive wealth for investors. Over the past 14 years, for every $1 the market gained, these stocks typically have gained $4 — that’s four times the growth and dividends — for their shareholders. #-ad_banner-#So what makes these companies special? First, I should explain what a “legacy asset” is. Legacy assets are companies or resources that have rewarded owners for generations, often thanks in part to a durable brand or service or infrastructure system that has stood the test of time. And as I mentioned… Read More

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but the odds are stacked against you when it comes to “beating the market.”  By nearly 6 to 1 in fact… Investment analysts, advisors and fund managers — the so-called experts — spend their entire working lives and billions of dollars on research vowing to “beat the market” in any given year — yet the vast majority of them fail… Just look at mutual fund industry’s record. In the past three years, just 14% of actively-managed mutual fund managers matched or exceeded the market’s performance according to Standard & Poor’s. So how… Read More

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but the odds are stacked against you when it comes to “beating the market.”  By nearly 6 to 1 in fact… Investment analysts, advisors and fund managers — the so-called experts — spend their entire working lives and billions of dollars on research vowing to “beat the market” in any given year — yet the vast majority of them fail… Just look at mutual fund industry’s record. In the past three years, just 14% of actively-managed mutual fund managers matched or exceeded the market’s performance according to Standard & Poor’s. So how are the small minority beating the market? After years of research, we’ve found that more often than not, companies with just three basic characteristics are the ones that consistently beat the S&P 500… They often pay much higher dividend yields than the S&P 500 too. In fact, eight out of 10 stocks chosen for our “Top 10 Stocks For 2014” report paid a higher dividend yield than the S&P 500. A few even carried yields over 4.3% — more than twice the S&P 500’s yield. Don’t believe it’s as simple as three traits to find market-beating stocks? Consider our track… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods… That’s pretty remarkable considering that in 2009 alone over 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not the high-flying tech startups… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods… That’s pretty remarkable considering that in 2009 alone over 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not the high-flying tech startups… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods… That’s pretty remarkable considering that in 2009 alone over 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not the high-flying tech startups… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods… That’s pretty remarkable considering that in 2009 alone over 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not the high-flying tech startups… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods… That’s pretty remarkable considering that in 2009 alone over 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not the high-flying tech startups… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods… That’s pretty remarkable considering that in 2009 alone over 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not the high-flying tech startups… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time…World War I and II… The Great Depression… the dot-com bubble… government shutdowns… the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you though, it didn’t matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods… That’s pretty remarkable considering that in 2009 alone over 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not the high-flying tech startups… Read More