Get Rich with Dividends: A Proven System for Earning Double-Digit Returns

“Y’all Must’ve Forgot”

During his prime, legendary boxer Roy Jones Jr. was one of the best fighters that many fans had ever seen. However, Jones didn’t seem to get as much respect as he thought he deserved. So, in 2001, he released a rap song that listed his accomplishments and reminded fans about just how good he was. The song was titled “Y’all Must’ve Forgot.” Roy was a much better fighter than he was a rapper. The song was horrendous.

Looking back, investors in the mid- to late 1990s remind me of boxing fans in 2001, when Roy released his epic tribute to himself. Both groups seemed to have forgotten how good they had it—boxing fans no longer appreciated the immense skills of Jones, while investors grew tired and impatient with the 10.9% average annual returns of the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 (including dividends), since 1961. After decades of investing sensibly, in companies that were good businesses that often returned money to shareholders in the form of dividends, many investors became speculators, swept up in the dot-com mania.

I’m not blaming anyone or wagging my finger. I was right there with them. During the high-flying dot-com days, I was trading in and out of Internet stocks too. My first “ten bagger” (a stock that goes up ten times the original investment) was Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM). I bought it at $4 and sold some at $50 (I sold up and down along the way).

However, like many dot-com speculators, I got caught holding the bag once or twice as well. I probably still ...