Today’s Two-Minute is another reminder of how to not wake up broke in your 80s.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) just raised its dividend for the 58th consecutive year. 58th! It is up 7% from last year’s payout.
Survivability, reliability, predictable performance and growth… P&G is one of the many stocks that can prevent you from waking up broke in your 80s.
It is the epitome of the type of stock you must hold in retirement.
But dividends don’t tell the whole story.
It’s easy to buy a good stock like P&G and then run like hell as soon as the other side of the market, a sell-off, raises its ugly head. And over the past few weeks we have seen just a peek of what that other side is like.
The media’s constant focus on a possible correction hasn’t helped the situation. But buy a great stock just to sell at a loss as soon as the inevitable happens and all you did was put money in someone else’s pocket.
Sell-offs are inevitable! You have to ride them out or get out stocks entirely.
And this chronic weak spot for the small investor, selling at the first sign of a sell-off, is where P&G and companies like it shine.
While the S&P was dropping from 1,866 in the last week of March to 1,815 to close last week, P&G moved up $3 a share.
Despite the pounding stocks have been taking and despite the fact that no one can talk about anything but a sell-off or a correction, P&G still moved up in price.
Now, I know it doesn’t take a genius to recommend a company like P&G. But how many of you own it? The problem with these stalwart stocks is everybody knows them but no one buys them.
They are too recognizable or too mundane for most. But if you plan to make it to and through retirement you better start looking more closely at the boring stalwarts of the market.
Keep playing the hot stuff and fast movers and you’ll end up where most are… broke and carrying a lot of debt going into retirement.
Change how you are doing things now or get ready to spend your golden years at the poverty level.