O What A Feeling

Buy & Hold: Not So Dead

I see it all the time,

• "buy & hold is more like buy & hope".  
• "This is a trader's market."

But I believe that one can still invest and do well.  I go back to one of my oldest investments, O.  There may not be a more boring stock. Almost like a utility, the Realty Income Corporation is a REIT that has been around forever.  I first bought it in 2002 and have simply been reinvesting the dividends throughout the years.  I have a table below showing it's history for me (using a multiplier).

Date Purchased	Shares	Purchase Price	Current Price	Dividends	Gain	Pct Gain
08/01/02	457.6	$16.78	$51.78	9,226	25,245	328.8%
01/18/11	80.4	$29.19	$51.78	677	2,492	106.2%
04/13/12	2.1	$37.25	$51.78	12	43	54.8%
05/14/12	2.0	$39.28	$51.78	12	37	46.5%
05/14/12	2.0	$39.21	$51.78	11	37	46.4%
07/13/12	1.9	$41.78	$51.78	10	30	37.0%
08/15/12	2.0	$40.52	$51.78	10	33	40.9%
09/14/12	2.0	$42.06	$51.78	10	29	35.4%
10/15/12	2.0	$41.15	$51.78	10	32	38.0%
11/15/12	2.1	$39.08	$51.78	10	38	44.9%
12/17/12	2.1	$40.58	$51.78	10	33	39.2%
12/06/12	2.0	$42.30	$51.78	9	28	33.2%
02/14/13	2.3	$44.22	$51.78	10	27	27.0%
03/14/13	2.3	$44.61	$51.78	10	26	25.5%
05/14/13	2.0	$52.30	$51.78	7	6	6.3%
06/17/13	2.4	$43.41	$51.78	9	28	27.7%
07/15/13	2.4	$43.44	$51.78	8	28	27.2%
08/15/13	2.4	$43.18	$51.78	8	28	27.5%
09/15/13	2.6	$39.28	$51.78	8	41	39.7%
10/15/13	2.6	$40.01	$51.78	8	38	36.7%
11/14/13	2.6	$39.66	$51.78	7	39	37.5%
12/13/13	2.8	$37.16	$51.78	7	49	46.2%
01/14/14	2.8	$38.26	$51.78	7	45	42.0%
02/18/14	2.6	$41.07	$51.78	6	33	31.4%
03/17/14	2.5	$42.12	$51.78	5	30	27.7%
04/16/14	2.6	$41.68	$51.78	5	31	28.6%
05/13/14	2.5	$44.05	$51.78	4	23	21.3%
06/16/14	2.5	$43.24	$51.78	4	25	23.1%
07/15/14	2.4	$45.06	$51.78	3	19	17.8%
08/15/14	2.5	$43.73	$51.78	3	23	20.9%
09/15/14	2.5	$44.19	$51.78	2	21	19.2%
10/15/14	2.6	$42.89	$51.78	2	25	22.4%
11/14/14	2.4	$46.43	$51.78	1	14	12.7%
12/14/14	2.4	$46.43	$51.78	1	14	12.3%
01/09/15	2.2	$50.68	$51.78	0	3	2.5%
02/15/15	2.3	$51.31	$51.78	-	1	0.9%

The second entry is a bulk entry of all dividends received up until 2011 when I moved this into my tracking worksheet. I think this is a great example of the power of compounding and reinvesting dividends. If you pick a good company at the start and get a decent price at the start, buy and hold works just fine thank you.

When I first bought in, the monthly dividend was about 10 cents a share.  Now it is 19 cents a share.

So my initial purchase of $7,700 is now generating $1,392 in income per year ==> taking into account increased dividend and all the reinvested shares.  That is stunning when you think about it and very satisfying.  Makes me wish I had bought and held even more back in 2002.