How To Invest

In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.

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Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.

If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)

If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.

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How To Invest Library Archives
You Can See our Income-Seeking Portfolio for March 2026 Here.

This month we update our Portfolio for Income-Seeking Investors. In light of the current market volatility, investors are paying more attention to dividend yields (dividends paid per share divided by the current stock price). As well, dividend-paying companies are once again raising their payouts as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 lockdowns.
A: A.O. Smith Corp., $79.92, symbol AOS on New York (Shares outstanding: 113.4 million; Market cap: $11.0 billion; www.aosmith.com), is a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of residential and commercial water heating equipment, boilers, and water treatment products. The company generates 77% of its sales in North America and 23% internationally. The majority of international sales are in China, where it’s been operating for more than 30 years. Its brands include A.O. Smith, State, Lochinvar, and Aquasana.

The company has 23 manufacturing plants in 13 U.S. states, Mexico, and Canada, and five elsewhere, including China.

On November 12, 2025, A.O. Smith announced it would acquire Leonard Valve for $470 million in cash.
A: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ADR, $34.79, symbol TEVA on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $42.1 billion; Manufacturing & Industry sector; TSINetwork Rating: Average; No dividends paid; www.tevapharm.com), is a pharmaceutical company that produces generic and branded drugs. The company operates worldwide in 57 markets with 48 manufacturing sites and 230,000 employees. The headquarters is in Israel, with a significant presence in the U.S., Europe, and other markets.

Generic drugs make up almost 70% of Teva’s sales, while the balance comes from branded drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

In recent years, Teva has focused more on the development and marketing of higher-profit-margin branded drugs. Successful developments include Ajovy (migraine treatment), Austedo (tardive dyskinesia and chorea associated with Huntington’s Disease), and Uzedy (schizophrenia treatment).
A: The iShares S&P/TSX Composite High Dividend Index ETF, $34.58, symbol XEI on Toronto (Units outstanding: 91.7 million; Market cap: $3.2 billion; www.blackrock.com/ca), aims to track the S&P/TSX Composite High Dividend Index, which holds the 75 highest-yielding Canadian stocks.

The index is market capitalization weighted, with each stock capped at 5% (any stock may rise above 5% temporarily until rebalancing). Each industry group is also capped, at 30%. Note—the ETF rebalances quarterly on the same schedule as its benchmark index.
A: Shake Shack Inc., $96.60, symbol SHAK on New York (Shares outstanding: 40.3 million; Market cap: $3.9 billion; www.shakeshack.com), operates quick-service restaurants offering the classic American menu.

The company is well known for its premium, made-to-order Angus beef burgers, crispy chicken, hand-spun milkshakes, house-made lemonades, beer, wine, and more.

Since the original Shake Shack opened in 2004 in New York City’s Madison Square Park, the company has expanded to 630 Shacks locations worldwide. Of that total, 359 are company-operated and 271 are franchisee held. In the U.S., the company has 405 restaurants in 34 states and the District of Columbia. Outside of the country, it has 225 international licensed Shacks in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Mexico City, Istanbul, Dubai, Tokyo, Seoul and more.