Investment Strategies? Keep'em Simple

By Dian Vujovich

The longer one lives the more they realize the truth behind that simple KISS philosophy, i.e., “Keep It Simple Stupid.” That kind of down-home wisdom also applies within the investing arena. As for the “stupid” part, well, who among us hasn’t been at times?

So to smarter us up during this investment year, here are few KISS-like investment concepts to chew over:

1) The 10 percent deal. I’ve always heard that one was to tithe 10 percent of their income. Never was quite sure if that was 10 percent of one’s gross income or their net. In either event, 10 percent is a great money making marker. Investment portfolios, savings accounts, religious coffers, etc., would grow quite sweetly if year-after year monies in them earned 10 percent. While a 10 percent return might seem like a lot to expect for some this year and too little for others, if your investment returns average out to that double-digit figure, consider yourself among the lucky and the wealthy. After all, money earning that rate of return doubles in value in a little over every seven years.

2) Listen to your kids. Frank Cerabino, a columnist for “The Palm Beach Post,” wrote a terrific story on January 6, 2009, about stock market advice gleaned from kids. The lessons from these middle school children are hard to top. They include; don’t be greedy, buy stocks from stores that have lots of customers, do your own research, and watch TV.

As for their investment strategy: Sell stocks when they are up 10 percent or when they have lost 3 percent.

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3) The Dogs of the Dow. Remember them? Once upon a time the Dogs of the Dow was an investment strategy heralded by many. While the scheme didn’t work too well last year, the Dogs were down 41 percent, who knows, this year things could be different.

To be a Dogs of the Dow player, select the 10-highest yielding stocks out of the 30 companies listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the beginning of the year and let’em roll till year’s end. The notion behind the strategy is that the high dividend yields on these stocks are an indication that the companies are undervalued.

Here’s the listing of the 2009 Dogs according to Yahoo.com/finance: Bank of America (NYSE: BAC – News), General Electric (NYSE: GE – News), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE – News), DuPont (NYSE: DD – News), Alcoa (NYSE: AA – News), AT&T (NYSE: T – News), Verizon (NYSE: VZ – News), Merck (NYSE: MRK – News), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM – News), and Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT – News).