Stock-dividend Books

A very readable primer for beginner as well as experienced investor. This book is sure to give a good case of heartburn to "financial planners" and "life retirement consultants" who make their living on portfolio maintenance charges. Chapter by chapter, George Fisher uncomplicates the world of dividend reinvestment and direct stock purchase plans, and shows the reader that it's just not as hard as it seems to become one's own self-reliant investor. Section "Best Of The Best" which profiles 16 top companies is alone worth the price of the book.

Dividend reinvestment planning is the dirty little secret your broker and mutual fund salespeople don't want you to know about. Why? Because DRIPpers pay all the commissions to themselves.
To date few books about DRIPs have gone much beyond the mechanics of starting a plan and listing a number of companies that offer DRIPs. Most books describe a "one size fits all" approach to DRIPping. Yet anyone who DRIPs will tell you it is more complex than that.
All About DRIPs and DSPs breaks the mold. It could be seen as the first text book and artistic approach to dividend reinvestment planning. There is the usual material about how to begin a plan but it also begins to consider individual approaches to the process. Although individuals are responsible for choosing their own investments Mr. Fisher helps the reader develop the skills to make wise choices. He teaches an investor how to research companies through simplified analysis, looking at management and reading an annual report. He sifts these to find what is important and does it with humour. I particularly noted the sections on how to read between the lines when management speaks or how Harley Davidson has the kind of brand loyalty that causes people to tatoo the company logo to their bodies.
There are also sections on portfolio planning with DRIPs, how bonds can be DRIPped and lists of DRIP offering companies with outstanding historical performances.
DRIPs are for take charge individuals, with only small amounts of money to invest, who are tired of paying exhorbitant fees for questionable service. This book has provided me other strategies to consider than my own and broadened my approach. All About DRIPs and DSPs is for the self motivated individuals who wants to invest effectively and successfully.
This is the kind of book DRIPpers have been waiting for.

This is a very good book about buying stocks directly from the company. In this market why pay broker fees. A bunch of drunken monkeys throwing darts at the Wall Street Journal can do just as well at picking good stock as a broker and there's no fees. This is a great nuts and bolts book on buying drips. This is a good book for the beginning investor.

This book succeeds with its target audience on so many levels. It's written in a non-pretentious manner and covers all the bases very well. Due to the nature of this type of investing anyone can pick it up and be in the stock market in no time.

How much more timely could this book be? With the gut-wrenching gyrations in the stock market right now, the prudent, dollar-cost-averaging investor's style deserves a comprehensive illustration. This book provides that.

The company capsules are an excellent bonus. You don't see anything like that in the typical investing book.

Most investors want a simple formula for making reasonable gains in the stock market. The authors have done just that. Early in the book they tell you what their five simple steps are (in one paragraph) then proceed to explain why their method works. My only criticism is that the book is 1/3 text and 2/3 performance tables backing up their research. Does dividend investing work? My stock portfolio has beaten the S&P 500 for the last 2 years since I began using their technique.

I purchased this book and have found it to be very helpful when making stock market selections that produce value and dividends over time. There are many books on the market and many ways of approaching the purchase of stocks, but this book I believe is great for those who are new to investing and want to learn how to find stocks that will appreciate and grow. There is work that the person reading the book must do and there is a learning process involved, but it is very beneficial.

for the conservative investor this is an absolutely essential tool and very easy to use

A good 70% of the data I need to generate a strong dividend stream is in here. I need other information from other sources, but without Mergents, I would spend a lot of time digging through raw data.

I had previously owned and older book,and was updating. they are very informative on all information about lots of stocks, contact information, charting, dividends, buy recommendatin, etc

Davis is definitely the best stock operator I have even witnessed in operation. Dick Davis founded the "Dick Davis Digest" in 1982, one of the nation's largest investment newsletter. "The Dick Davis Dividend" has 26 favorable endorsements from eminent people. Its structure, as can be seen in for example, from the Table of Content is also excellent. Davis' bluntly honest approach is reflected in some of the chapter headings: "Absolutely Nobody Knows the Answers", "There's Always an Exact Opposite Opinion", "The Market is Always King" and "After You Buy It'll Always Go Lower". The second part of this engaging guide makes a compelling case for combining both passive investing via index funds and active investing via stocks and mutual funds. Davis focuses on 28 buy and hold ,diversified, index fund model portfolios. Each one is recommended by a leading authority in the world of indexing. The wide selection of models makes a passive/active strategy easy to implement. This is the only investment guide you'll ever need. Dr Jusuf Hariman

I just finished the Dick Davis Dividend and I have to say it is one of the best investment books I have ever read. This book is perfect for anyone from a beginning investor to someone more advanced. Reading it now during tough econmic times and market uncertainty made it all the more valuable.

My absolute favorite section was when he outlined the top investors of the modern era's portfolios. It shows that many of even the best investors stick to low cost index funds and ETFs.

This book is not for someone wanting to learn more about individual stocks and how to get rich quick. It is a perfect book for someone trying to find their own personal market strategy that will last through the Bulls and Bears. I highly recommend this book, even if you don't fully believe in a index fund approach it gives everyone insight to another tool to have in your portfolio

I have been investing for about 3 years now. I am 27 years old. I wish this had been my first book on investing. It probably would have been my only one. Dick Davis is VERY realistic. There are no get rich quick schemes. No mathmatical equations, no B.S.. he is very honoest and very informative. I would suggest this book to anyone who owns a stock, is thinking of buyin a stock, or is curious about investing. Wonderful!!!

Great stuff!
Having read most everything by Bogle, Swensen, Bernstein, Swedroe, et. al., I found "Dividend" refreshing for it's objective take on the financial industry and the media's daily coverage of same. Yes, you've likely heard much of this elsewhere, yet not likely so well organized and presented. And yes, the book is long, but well worth a read - or two. I particularly enjoyed the broad coverage of passive portfolios. Dick Davis encourages exploration and critical questioning, to find what works for you.
Highly recommended.

On the front of the book there is a quote by Larry King calling the author "the best stock commentator I have ever heard." That is what this book is, a commentary about the stock market in general and the virtues of being a passive investor in low load mutual funds or ETFs.

The majority of the book consists of generalities about the market that based on his numerous years of following the market Davis feels are most important for investors to learn: the news follows the market action, news reporters try to explain the daily stock moves and may not be right about the real reasons, passive long term investors should not worry about the news since they are in it for the long haul, news is only important if its about a fundamental shift for your company, you more than likely can not beat the market so you should use a diversified portfolio of mutual funds or ETFs, you should buy for the long term but if the market fundamentals change you should rebalance the portfolio, invest in mutual funds or etfs when stocks are cheap, etc. You can guess from these subjects that the author is heavily biased in favor of being a passive investor. The book is filled with quotes from Peter Lynch, Warren Buffet, and a host of other investors to back up this point of view. For investors who want to follow this path, he includes a 28 model index giving examples of diversified portfolios of mutual funds and etfs so investors can get an idea of how to do this. Davis also touches on active investing, some generalities about that way of investing (like keep investing using a system as long as it works, etc.), and gives lists of 60+ books, sources, and newsletters that have proven to be good for active investors.

But again this is more of a commentary book about personal observations made by author and his pointing out how other investors have been successful in the market. Detailed discussions and use of market metrics (P/E, PEG, technical anaysis, etc.) are little to nonexistent; you can get the same level of detail from a tv interview with Warren Buffet or Bogle. His commentary on some subjects (such as why not to listen to the media because they focus on the short term is 30+ pages)is somewhat overdone (in fairness, Davis points this out in the first of the book). Davis really doesn't give his own experiences in investing, he just points out what others have done and what statistics have shown. He also points out several times that in the courses he teaches most of his students are confused by him because he presents the whole story of a stock, both good and bad, and leaves it up to them to decide what to believe rather than giving a strong opinion; that pretty much sums up this book.

If you are an advanced to intermediate active investor in individual stocks (I consider myself intermediate), the book has good generalities to remember but if you are looking for something more like a Peter Lynch book with specifics you will be disappointed; the reason for two stars. If you are a beginning investor, an investor who doesn't have time to follow the market but wants to participate in investing, or a stong advocate of the Bogle method of investing, you will find the book interesting and probably deserves 4 stars. Personally, I think you can get the same info in more detail from books by Ken Fisher, Peter Lynch, John Bogle, and about Warren Buffet.

A great explanation on dividends and why they matter. Also an advertisement of his newsletter which I tried out for a few months.

This book got me into dividend investing. It has changed my retirement strategy completely. It is a little dated because of the market downturn of late 2008, but the theory is the same. Dividends stocks are even more attractive at the lower prices after the downturn.

Simply put, we are in a period where growth stocks are going to be hard to find and income should be a priority. I think this book will be good for novice and seasoned investor alike if you are not using dividends, you should be. Easily worth the money as both my wife and I read the book and recommended it to friends. It gives clear advice and tactics that anyone can use which is important in any investing book.

I DO BELIEVE THAT JOSH PETERS HAS DISCOVERED THE HOLY GRAIL OF "HANDS ON" STOCK MARKET INVESTING ! I CAN'T THINK OF A BETTER WAY TO GET RICH SLOWLY THAN COMPOUNDING INCREASING DIVIDENDS OVER A PERIOD OF YEARS. WORKS LIKE MAGIC, ESPECIALLY IN RETIREMENT PLANS. LOTS OF FUN AND LESS STRESS.

TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT !

This is the first book I've read in a long, long time that devotes itself entirely to dividend investing. I agree with the author, that dividends are too overlooked by most investors. The author presents a three-principle paradigm to dividend investment. He emphasizes the importance of patience, which is absolutely necessary because dividend investing is about income, not growth or fast (or even medium-speed) gains.

However, I find the book wordy and hard to follow. Usually after reading a few pages I begin to feel drowsy. (A good book to keep for sleepless nights!) Worse, the author does not present a ready-to-use cookbook for finding the "right" stocks; he does a slightly better job in describing how to construct a porfolio, but overall, you really will have to read the book several times, and TAKE NOTES, in order to decipher his methodology. Or, as he suggests multiple times, just subscribe to his monthly newsletter, for a fee, of course.

He also puts down income mutual funds, which I find both unnecessary and self-serving. I believe you can have a good dividend investing strategy with top-quality equity income funds -- I've done just that with my UTMA account.

In summary, if you have a lot of patience and are willing to live modestly, this book gives you motivation for a boring but steady investment strategy (as long as you don't fall asleep reading it). Given the economy is likely to worsen in the coming years, I think a lot of cautious investors should find the message here invaluable.

The author, Mr. Lowell Miller, discusses the power of compounded dividend reinvestment of common stocks. This investment strategy is great for beginning investors and more experienced traders alike.

It is hard to go wrong with this book as a first investment book. The author also discusses fundamental analysis, which is the skill of determining how healthy a company is.

Professional money manager Lowell Miller unlocks the secrets of long-term investment success in a simple and understandable rule-based format. Bill Gurner, President, Sector Capital Management wrote that "investors will miss the boat if they don't read "The Single Best Investment"". William Hester, Bloomberg Personal Finance Senior Market Editor wrote that Lowell Miller will show "you how to find high-quality dividend-paying stocks that will safely increase your wealth". The single best investment is a select group of high-quality, moderate growth companies that offer consistent returns, minimal fundamental risk, and less volatility than the market average. This book shows you exactly how professional portfolio manager Lowell Miller goes about selecting stocks that can provide high income and outperform the market averages over the broad time frames that true investors seek. In this approach, there is no need to time the market, no need to uncover "the best" mutual fund, no need to find a market guru to follow, no need to master the intricacies of a corporate balance sheet. Miller reduces the problem to a simple set of rules that any investor can follow. This book will guide you with simple rules so that you can create your own private "compounding machine", one that will multiply your net worth again and again over the years. You will learn what the consistent top-performing professionals have always known: Dividends and their reinvestments are the key to the kingdom. Digest this book and you will multiply your wealth many times over.

I am a great fan of passive index funds. I also hate the idea of owning bonds and have toyed with the idea of replacing bonds in my asset allocation with high dividend stocks from high quality companies. Historically, high dividend stocks from high quality companies have declined less than the S&P 500 in Bear Markets. The current 15% tax rate on dividends is also more favorable to holding high dividend paying stocks in taxable accounts.

Miller hates bonds as much as I do......and advocates a 100% stock portfolio several times in the book.

Miller contends that an investor can construct a 100% stock portfolio that has lower risk and a higher return than a conventional 60:40 stock and bond portfolio.

Miller repeats the age old saying that "Dividends Don't Lie".......and we recently learned about how many managements can lie ala Enron and WorldCom. Miller calls the period 1990-2003 the Dividend Dark Ages where companies reduced the amounts of dividends paid and focused on increase stock prices.......including creative accounting....so executives stock options would be worth more to them.

Miller gives specific guidelines on how to select high quality companies with great prospects for long term increases in dividend growth.

Although Miller is more an active versus a passive investor, his technicques are likely to yield returns close to index fund returns.

Over-all an interesting read and his suggestion to replace a 60:40 conventional stock and bond portfolio with 100% dividend paying stocks is great food for thought.

I would suggest companion books to supplement this book including:
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's
The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
Wealth: Grow It, Protect It, Spend It, and Share It
All About Asset Allocation.

I've read dozens of investing "classics" and this one ranks high among them. It's engangingly written without being pushy or arrogant. The advice it contains is convincing, wise, and timeless.

Overall this is a good book, but there is nothing in this volume that will help you find the really big winners. If you are looking to make 6% to 10% return on your money each and every year, read this book, but if you are looking for much higher returns say 20% to 100% per year, read some of william O'neils books.

This is an absolutely superb book for the serious investor. My recommendation is to read it at least twice. The first quick read will guide one away from mistakes such as buying an underperforming mutual fund with high administrative expenses and management fees (I was poised to do this before reading Bill Staton's book). The second, and more thorough, read will allow the investor to examine in detail the author's philosophy of, and methodology for, investing in companies that are, in Mr. Staton's opinion, "America's Finest." The book is an excellent guide as to how to navigate successfully our currently troubled economic waters. Bill's approach shows that making money in the stock market, even in a recession, is not only possible but easy. Highly recommended.

This book does not deliver. It is nothing more then a cut and paste job that provides anecdotal quips and not much more. The book is really a marketing tool to drive you to authors website and an attempt to sell you services. There is no screening data that gives one longterm seach criteria in which to look for dividend stocks. I would not reccomend this book and I regeat my purchase.

This book shows you a simple, time-proven way to make your money grow at above-average rates with sharply reduced risk. By investing solely in America's Finest Companies, you could potentially double your money every five to seven years. If so, you will outperform at least 75% of all professionals 100% of the time. Any one of America's Finest Companies is like a staircase that begins at the left and rises one step at a time toward the right. Every step represents an increase in the value of the AFC company's business. Now picture a curve that follows the staircase upward and that represents the AFC stock price over then years. It goes up and down in value (randomly) in the short term, but the path is always in one direction-upward. As Brian Tracy says, "This is a tremendous book that stands out from all the other books on the same subjects. Bill Staton gives you a powerful, practical series of strategies and techniques you can use to become wealthy faster and more predictably than you have thought possible".

I first got aware of the teaching and investing phylosophy of Mr. Staton two years ago at a seminar (Weath Mastery from Anthony Robbins)in front of 1000 investors. I was wowed! A man of this status (Mr. Robbins) reccommending his people to adopt and follow the teachings of Bill Staton.

Then the market started going south and like everyone else I got worried. I realized that I owned stocks from America's Finest Companies, just like Mr. Staton had taught me. When I heard he had written a new book I bought it here and read it completly. It was so important to me to know and be reminded again that my course of action (his knowledge and teaching) was the right one.

Invest in the finest companies and you cannot loose.

Thank you Mr. Staton for writting this book in such volatile times.

I can only hope that more people will read this book as it will make them stop focusing a little on the short term setbacks and see their investments in amazing companies as a tremendous bargain, maybe the last we will see in a long time.

Sincerely

Chris, Montreal

If you take Douglas Andrews mix in Robert Kiyosaki add a dash of Warren Buffet and a pinch of Benjamin Graham you would get Bill Staton.

Bill Staton has written a very informative and easy to follow book. Why spend a ton of money on brokers and constant trades, when you can do it yourself? Buying stock doesn't have to be a gamble, and it doesn't have to consume all your time. Staton explains how to grow your money with a portfolio of no more than 15 stocks, and to continue to invest yearly in those stocks. He also discusses dividends, tax advantages of IRA's and the importance of talking to your children about money. Staton doesn't leave you hanging after buying his book either. Every year he and his team recalculate the "America's Finest Companies" and publishes a new report. This could be your first investment book or your 100th.........I guarantee you- you will get something out of this book!