Income? From Stocks?
Congratulations are in order! If you've picked up this book, you probably have some money to invest. Perhaps you've just retired with a couple of hundred thousand dollars, maybe even a million or two. Funny thing about money, though: It doesn't come with instructions. Television commercials for the Wall Street Journal in the 1980s used this line to suggest that the Journal was the next best thing. I appreciate the Journals insightful missives as much as anyone. For the most part, though, you and your money are largely on your own.
Whether your accumulated savings are large or small, we can begin by asking what you want from the money. "To get rich" is a straightforward and honest answer, but it may not quite get to the heart of the matter. Fortunes have been and will be made by investors who can outguess the market, especially with large quantities of other people's money. It's also true that very few of us will reach the ranks of the superrich. Even on Wall Street, there's only so much dough to go around.
Then again, it's not necessary for one's investments to generate fantastic fortunes. Buying groceries, paying the gas bill, taking a vacation now and again--these are the bread-and-butter activities of Main Street, both before retirement and after. The goal of saving and investing, then, is to replace the paychecks earned by the sweat of your brow with paychecks from your investment portfolio. Income--steady, reliable, predictable, and rising income--is the objective.
