Imagine that it is October 1993, we are having lunch and I lean over and tell you that I believe that the next 30 years will be incredibly prosperous. Why? There’s this thing called the internet that I believe will revolutionize the worlds of commerce, finance, communication, data, and knowledge. So much so in fact, that while sitting on a park bench or couch, waiting on a friend, walking down the road, etc. you will be able to book a plane ticket, pay your bills and check your bank balance, watch a movie, order lunch and have it delivered to your door, or research pretty much any topic you can think of, cue up a how-to video on anything from home repairs to scrapbooking, access millions of songs, and on and on. The kicker – you’ll be doing all this and more on a mobile phone that sits in the palm of your hand and harnesses computing power millions of times greater than the guidance computers for humankind's first flight to the moon, the Apollo 11 mission.

Once you were done laughing you might think I should be locked up, especially if you had just finished reading Harry E. Figgie, Jr. and Gerald J. Swanson’s book Bankruptcy 1995: The Coming Collapse of America and How to Stop It, which predicted, on the basis of some very smart sounding logic, that the US was going to experience a societal and economic collapse of epic proportions because of its rising debt levels. Now this is not to suggest that these authors should be mocked, it’s more of a reminder that people, politicians, and economies tend to figure things out when they have to, and only then. That is why it is better to focus your energies on the realities of the companies you own rather than the noise of the day.

As an example, our US Dividend Income Strategy owns 15 companies with a history of paying rising dividends. It currently has a yield of 3.6%* and those companies only use 53.9%** of their profits to pay out those dividends, so we think that they are sustainable. We also know that those dividends have grown by 8.5%** for each of the last 5 years and if that trend continues over time share prices will be higher in the future, although not necessarily every day, week, or month.

Make no mistake, we are aware of the problems in the economy, government, and other corners of the world; regardless, we also think that you will still go to The Home Depot, brush your teeth with Colgate, and ship packages with UPS, etc.

Stay focused on your long-term goals and keep your near-term needs in cash.

Randy and Ian

*Source: R&R Investment Partners. Weighted average. As of April 25, 2023

**Source: CPMS. Median values. As of April 25, 2023