“if you’ve got 10K to invest, AT&T wouldn’t be what I’d recommend.”

I will take a few snippets from several posts to say this. Seeing a Fidelity CFP is a good idea, my biggest regret today is not doing it sooner. Charts & graphs can make your eyes glaze over, but the right person can put all in perspective in an up, or down market. My guy typically sits with me for 90 minutes every time....no rushing and all questions answered and he even raises a few good thoughts.

To the OP, as long as a legitimate stock (AT&T, or even Exxon XOM) pays consistent dividends...reinvested...it is not dead money. After all, If we all made perfect stock picks, why would we be posting here and complaining? We’d be retired, “sitting on a beach earning”.....well you know.

Long term investing takes patience and discipline, which means continuing to invest in a seriously down market = dollar cost averaging. DCA forces that discipline, use it!

Someone posted, “if you’ve got 10K to invest, AT&T wouldn’t be what I’d recommend.” I agree, I’m not a big fan of dumping lump sums into any stock, or mutual fund. But small, consistent amounts within you’re 401K, even in AT&T, is not the worst thing you can do.

Call me a Tortoise too.

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I made this comment in the other thread, and now I see it has become a topic! I’m so popular.

@3qwl, no real problem with your philosophy, seems it was not your only play and you felt that your others avenues were covered. Enjoy the dividends.

@3axs, I guess either I didn’t make it clear or you glossed over some sentences:

First paragraph, first sentence, “I have a WIDE variety of INVESTMENTS (both in, and out of my 401K) I always considered T as a dividend play anyway.” Can’t be any clearer than that!

Second paragraph, first sentence: “My mindset was NEVER to trade, but ACCUMULATE, this PARTICULAR investment (my only stock holding) doing DCA the whole way with SMALL, consistent, monthly investments.” I think that was pretty clear also.

But you’re right, I was “dumb” while collecting shares a $14. for years, I was “dumb” for hanging around for the splits (probably shoulda said keep the shares) I was “dumb” for building such a lucrative dividend payer so that when I’m forced to make decisions with my RMD one day, it will be one massive headache! Guess I’ll survive.

The original strategy, was and always had been, to make T’s dividends pay off, and it has and will continue to do so long after I retire. It was a small sacrifice out of my monthly pay....yep, still crazy after all these years!

You are dumb to hold onto T. If you want a better long term return, and are afraid to pick a stock, invest in a SP500 ETF. The dividend is nice, BUT, there are so many better ways to invest! Just because you don't buy T, does NOT mean, keep your money on the side. Invest is something better, not hard to find better funds or stocks to invest in.... Those who buy and hold, even when the stock has tanked are crazy to think they have not lost money because they will wait for it to go back up! Lost opportunity = lost money.

@2ito, here’s the scary part, you’re not crazy....I responded to another persons response to the OP, if makes sense, you are correctly, what you saw was mine.

I came back about 12 hours later to see that his “if you’ve got 10K to invest” title emblazoned as MY OP....I had no idea what to do, i was out of state when this was posted so the real question was....did someone else do that or was it a glitch.

I felt embarrassed but has anyone else had this happen?

I think OP is re posting other posts, and posting over and over, funny

he must work fro SeekingAlpha!!

To the OP I’m a Tortoise as well, i have a wide variety of investments, I always considered T as a dividend play anyway, I’m not a trader. I was restless, yet patient with the recessions in ‘90 & ‘01, both about 8 months long and the ‘07-‘09 debacle.

I rode the stock up to $57 then down to $20, up to 43 and retreated to $31. My mindset was never to trade, but accumulate this particular investment, doing DCA the whole way with small, consistent, monthly investments and reinvesting the quarterly reinvestment. And before anyone shakes their head, I currently get an overall, yearly dividend of over $7K with a rather low cost average.

The argument was made to wait 5-6 quarters for AT&T to prove itself. To me this is keeping money sidelined. Can you Imagine if you waited that many quarters to jump back into the stock market in early March ‘09? Many people, to this day, never did!

Remember what the Tortoise said, you don’t need to start with a huge investment, just a little.

Investing a little at a time, not huge amounts, of T is not a bad move...a dollar cost avg approach into your 401K. Right now a yield of 6.22%, reinvested is twice that of a 10 yr Treasury. If, or when, the stock rises, the yield goes down...a two edge sword of course.

Many short sided thinkers are wondering where the stock price will be at years end or the year after, but really, who cares? Unless you have plans of tapping it early (accruing a penalty) then what’s the rush? If you survive the cuts, and hopefully many will, and make it to the finish line, you will see (like I have) what I like to call, ‘an accidental annuity.’

Think long term.

Until AT&T proves it can start growing (increase revenue quarterly for 5 or 6 qtrs in a row), the stock is NOT a buy! T stock is in the lowest quartile of available stocks to buy and own.

Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

“if you’ve got 10K to invest, AT&T wouldn’t be what I’d recommend.”

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