Daring D's

Deere Digital Duke

Why Deere?  Iconic American brand with International penetration. They call it cyclic. It pays rising dividends. The world needs food, and Deere is about food, shelter, roads and the like. Since I'm a long term holder (buy and monitor, they call it), I'm less worried about cyclical behavior and more about long term appreciation and compounding. 3% yield, great dividend growth, solid company growth; what's not to like?  Price is important when you buy, after that not so much...

Digital Realty Trust- the first of the REITs.  This one is a bit less typical because of the high tech nature of the server farm within the building, but DLR is the big dog in this space and there is no end of enterprises, large and small, looking for a place to securely house their virtual selves. This is a huge secular growth story, not likely to change for a long time, and the REIT structure is perfect for my "pay me now" kind of sensibility. I'm DRIPing as usual, so compounding is working for me. Gotta love that 5% dividend; with that much quarterly cash, all you need is a modest capital gain to exceed 10% total return. freight train...

Duke;  what can I say...I bought this utility way back when I was still in the shadow of the full service broker. It spun out Spectra, which I held and rode until it became hopelessly overvalued. It pays that steady dividend, grows slowly and is continually rated at the top of the utility sector. Can't believe I've owned it for 13 years...with Spectra it has appreciated at least 4 fold. I'll hold it forever, I think.