I'm completely in the 'Get paid or go home camp'. The Fiscal Cliff nonsense was a distraction. I stayed the course and profited from it. My large acct is comprised of 2 MFs (it's that or cash as my work retirement account doesn't let me do my own stock picking yet-only cash or MFs) that hold solid dividend payers (PM, T, CVX, HD, AAPL, MCD, etc). My IRAs are broken up into 2 categories: the first is ALL PM-no diversification, only Philip Morris Int'l. I bought the lion's share of it right after the tsunami in Japan (Mar 2011) at $62, so I don't sell pullbacks to $80 or whatever. I've been reinvesting the dividends on small corrections. The second is MLPs: QRE, LRE, RNF, and LINE. I'm going for some growth and huge ...More dividends (distributions actually). These 4 average about 9% at the moment, and my plan is to reinvest the distributions into whichever of the 4 is the best value at the moment, although I may start positions in LNCO or T given the right set of conditions and prices.
Degree in psych from CSUS. Worked in group homes and for CA state programs for a few years. Got into music for a while, but gave that up. Got into the markets/investing in '04 after looking over my retirement allocation for Trader Joe's. Decided to forgo grad school and train for mgmt at TJ's in '06. Have been a manager at several different WC Trader Joe's for about 6 years and enjoy it.
Tried day trading, intermediate trading, and some swing trading, with varied results. Have moved into a div and DG stock mentality over the last year or so, as I work 50 hour weeks and have 2 young children, and need to be thinking more longer term and using a strategy that's proven to work over time. Always reading...always learning...always wanting to improve and increase my knowledge of the markets, stocks, investing, etc. I'm most interested in the psychology of the markets. Yes, fundamentals and even technicals play their parts, but the market is driven by humans, and their psychological makeup and whims are the key to the market swings imo. Outguessing the competition using psychology is what I enjoy the most. Making $ isn't bad either.
arthur_bishop1972