by Once you start investing you start to see every transaction differently. Let’s look at a quick example.
You might drive daily to the coffee shop to get…you guessed it a cup of coffee.
A simple act of heading to the coffee shop can involve you interacting with several publicly traded companies. Let’s outline a simple trip to the coffee shop and see how you might be interacting with publicly traded companies.
- If you drove to the coffee shop in a Camry that’s made by Toyota (TM)
- On your Toyota you may have been riding on a set of Goodyear tires (GT)
- Ordering coffee from iPhone which is made by Apple
- You ordered from Starbucks
- Your cellular service was provided by AT&T
In the above example you have interacted with no less than 5 publicly traded companies. We didn’t even discuss the clothes you might be wearing or the insurance that covers your car. Your clothes might be made by Nike and your insurance by Mercury Insurance.
Every time you spend money with these companies you are contributing to their revenue. That revenue contributes to their bottom line which helps to drive growth so the stock price can go up.
Today our goal is we would like you to start to look at your interactions in the world from the point of an investor. Our hope is that you will look at the different industries below and you might find one that is more interesting. That interest will lead you to do some investigation and you might find a stock that you want to put your hard earned money to work.
Look at the Watch On Your Wrist, If You Wear One, and See Who Makes It
There is a chance if you wear a watch it’s made by Apple. The Apple Watch has become the number one selling watch in the world. At a record of 31 million watches sold in 2019 the volume of this wearable tech continues to climb.
Does this mean you should own Apple stock? It might. Apple is an extremely popular stock and if you own an S&P Index Fund as we have suggested in the past you will have shares of Apple as a part of that fund.
You might have an iPhone and AirPods and that would make you more heavily invested in Apple as a consumer. You might want to look at how you can own Apple Stock directly as part of your portfolio to beat the market. They have a wide variety of products, have a loyal consumer base, and continue to innovate in the market.
While Apple is the #1 selling watch company in the world there are other companies that make watches. You might be into cycling or running, like we do here, and want a watch or cycling computer built for the task. In that case you might look at Garmin (GRMN).
Garmin is a diversified technology company that many have not heard of. They make devices from smart watches to cycling computers to marine and aviation equipment. They are worth looking at in your evaluation should you desire to invest in this sector.
What Services Do You Use Daily That You Can’t Imagine Living Without
There are probably two services that most feel they can’t live without. Those would be cell and Internet services. It used to be that you had two separate companies that provided these services to you. Consolidation within the industry now allows customers to get cell and Internet from one company.
- AT&T – A company with a long history of paying dividends and a stock price that is affordable and usually in the high $20’s to $30’s range. Dividend yield at the time of this writing is well above 6%. They aren’t just in the business of providing Internet and cell phone they are also in the content providing business with their purchase of Warner Brothers. If you like HBO that’s good because they own that as well. You get a diversified media company with AT&T.
- Comcast – is another company. You might have their xfinity cable service however Comcast owns NBC, Xfinity, Telemundo, Dreamworks and even Universal Orlando Resort. With Comcast you are getting a provider of access to the Internet as well as content.
Twins Rules for Financial Success
As with all of our content here we want to encourage you to follow three core rules :
- Have an Emergency Fund/Squirrel Funds
- Invest for the Long Term
- Invest Automatically & Consistently
