C stands for characters

I like my C's...a diverse cast of characters

COST, CSX, CTBI and CVS

retail, rail, regional banking and big oil...

Costco is my Peter Lynch stock;  I shop there, love the experience, like how the company is run. I pay the executive membership fee, have the AmEx card and pay for the membership fee with My Amex kickback, and I only charge at Costco. That tells you that we spend a lot of money there;  I suspect we buy about half our food, most of our household products, personal care products, socks, skivvies, bumming around clothes, even dress shirts and slacks there. It's the one shopping date every month that we actually look forward to. 
Not electrifying performance, but about 50% increase in the position over 4 years. The dividend isn't much to talk about, but adds a bit, and I DRIP it. It continues to be the darling of the big-box discounters and as long as I like shopping there, I think I'll own the stock

CSX- After Buffet bought Burlington Northern, I started paying more attention to the railroads. My favorite would be Union Pacific, but I can't bear to pay for over-valued stocks, however much they are growing every year, so I compromised and bought CSX;  P/E that I can stomach,  nice share appreciation, average dividend, good dividend growth...10% total yield in 6 months; we'll see....

CTBI- I've been staving around trying to settle on a regional bank or two over the last several years; something small enough and sober enough to avoid the "money bank" hubris. I have owned a few, currently own two. this one has acceptable price appreciation, nice dividend, fairly shallow dividend growth;  said to be minding it's knitting and avoiding stupid stuff like derivative investments...banks worry me a bit, after being seriously stung by B of A and WaMu back in the day. Still, handling other people's money is a good way to take home a piece of it.

CVS- I love big oil;  it runs directly counter to my superficial cloak of "green sensibility", but Chevron has delivered big-time for my retirement portfolio. This is as close to a "set it and forget it" stock as I own. Energy production is for big broad-shouldered companies. Someone else can speculate on the wildcat producers. I like the big diversified producers, pipeline companies and the MLPs. They have done some very heavy lifting for me after the big swoon. Chevron is a stock to bequeath to my son...

that does it for C