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The Motley Fool Drip Portfolio was born, like
a small infant, on July 28th, 1997, at 6:59:59 p.m. The portfolio weighed
five hundred dollars at its birth.
The portfolio became "married" at a very young age, when it decided three
weeks after birth to wed Intel Corp <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") end if %> for the next two
decades, making that stock the first purchase of an eventual six to eight
holdings in the portfolio.
Provided in this area, dear Fools, are links to articles that explain
what this very Foolish portfolio aims to accomplish before reaching a mature
age, what Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRPs) are, and how you can
begin such an investment plan in leading companies, commission free, for
you, your spouse, your children, and your family newt. While immediately
below, in laymen's terms, is a summary of what we're doing and answers to
frequently asked questions.
Following along and what to invest in. The Drip Portfolio is easy to follow because each investment is being made steadily over a twenty-year period (at least), meaning that money will be invested into Intel and the portfolio's other stocks on a near monthly basis, representing "new" investments at the current prices all the time. Anyone can begin to learn from our investments via the daily columns at any time, even five years after the port's launch. As long as we still believe in our companies we'll hold onto them and add money to them each month. Ideally, we'll never need to sell.
As you begin your own investing adventure, remember that each decision you make is your own. Make sure that you're steering the boat, not some stranger whom you've never seen before and who goes by the ridiculous name of "JimmyBoBob Joe," or "TMF Jeff," for example. Online you have all of the information at your fingertips to begin making Foolish decisions, and this portfolio aims to help you steer in the right direction with its ongoing lessons, articles, and useful reference points.
How do I begin a commission-free purchasing plan? There are more than a few ways to begin dividend reinvestment plans. You can find answers to many of your questions on the options by clicking through the articles to the right. Essentially, you can use a dividend reinvestment plan service, you can use a discount broker, or, increasingly, companies offer what are called "direct purchases" of stock from the company itself from the beginning (most dividend reinvestment plans require that you own at least one share of stock before enrolling, though, and that stock needs to be bought in a traditional manner). Whatever you do, the objective is to keep your starting cost as low as possible. Luckily, this is easy to do with the options just mentioned and provided in the links to the right.
What is the Drip Port doing on a daily basis?Every Thursday the Drip Port
column provides thoughts on DRIP investing and analysis of the portfolio's stocks
or possible future stocks. We also discuss where monthly additional funds will be
invested, how best to value industries and stocks within them, and finally we show
how to write a really lazy column but make it look good enough to pass mustard, at
least for a day.
Over the first six months, the portfolio examined the technology, healthcare
and food industries, eventually buying Intel and Johnson & Johnson. We'll
continue to examine leading industries for possible purchases. We discuss
all possible buys weeks before they happen, and we show exactly why we're
buying what we finally decide to buy. This is what the daily Drip column
does. It's hopefully a daily education for all Fools on some level.
What is the beloved Drip Portfolio's goal? Our portfolio has
a 20-year goal of building an initial base of $500 and an additional $100
invested per month into $150,000 in twenty years. All transactions and accounting
are done in full public view -- Foolishly -- and buys are announced at least
one week beforehand, after being discussed in the daily recaps long before
the official announcement. The real goal, though, is to get Fools far and
wide who haven't invested in stocks much or at all in the past to begin investing
savings regularly into leading companies. After six months we've already
seen that goal come to fruition with thousands of Fools.
Criteria and sharing with Fools. For more on the criteria that
we look for in each stock that we finally decide to buy (buys are far and
few between -- they must be dominant companies representing consistently
growing value from the start, if possible), again, please see the articles
on the previous page (or linked below). And once you're thinking about investing,
or anytime that you wish, visit the Drip Port's Drip Basics and Drip Companies
message
boards in the Investor's Roundtable area to share thoughts and questions with other Fools. (There is also a complete FAQ linked at the bottom of the Drip boards.) Best of luck
in your first steps to building value. As Warren Buffett says, "Find value."
To which we add, "And then build upon that base."