Dividends Still Don't Lie: The Truth About Investing in Blue Chip Stocks and Winning in the Stock Market

Chapter 10. Building and Managing the Dividend-Value Portfolio

First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to the end.

—Aristotle

When I first began mapping out this book, my initial thought was that this would be the easiest chapter to write, as a good portion of each workday is directed toward research, analysis, stock selection, and portfolio management decisions. Now that I have reached this place in the book, I am beginning to think I was perhaps a little cavalier in that assessment.

Obviously I would hope at this point you realize it isn't that I don't have a grasp of the material. Much of this I do on an autonomic level just like breathing. The truth be told, after 25-plus years in this business, much of this process is so automatic for me I don't have to stop and think about the order of analytical steps and the myriad variables to consider in the decision-making process; I just do it.

As there are no existing mechanisms that allow me to download the data that resides on the hard drive between my ears directly to yours, I am relegated to transcribing the data in as precise and complete a manner possible through the medium in your hands. Although a linear presentation will not appeal to readers whose modality is perhaps more abstract, my thought is that it is the most logical way to progress through the material.

As such I have divided ...