With the market drop, is now a good time to invest?

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If you are going to buy index funds, ETFs, or mutual funds the answer is no. 12 months ago the Dow was sitting at 20,269 and today it is at 24,640. Broadly speaking the market is still very high. You should not buy stocks when they are overvalued.

Buy Low
You can invest in individual stocks, but you have to be very selective. Only buy quality stocks when they are undervalued.

Here’s how you know if a stock is undervalued:

  • It’s current dividend yield must be higher than it’s average dividend yield.

Buy Quality
Here’s how you know if it’s a quality stock, follow my 12 Rules of Simply Investing:

1. Do you understand the product or service offered by the company?

2. Will people still be using this product or service in 20 years?

3. Does the company have a low-cost durable (lasting) competitive advantage?

4. Is the company recession proof?

5. Has the company had consistent earnings growth?

  • Generally, the EPS growth must be at least 8%

6. Has the company had consistent dividend growth?

  • Generally, the dividend growth must be at least 8%

7. Does the company have a low payout ratio?

  • Payout ratio must be 75% or less.

8. Does the company have low debt?

  • Debt must be 70% or less.

9. Does the company have a good credit rating?

  • Company must have a minimum S&P Credit Rating of “BBB+”.

10. Does the company actively buy back its shares? (optional)

11. Is the stock undervalued?

a. The P/E Ratio must be 25 or below.

b. The current dividend yield must be higher than the average dividend yield.

c. The P/B Ratio should be 3 or less.

12. Keep emotion out of investing.

  • A reminder to keep emotion out of the selection process. Discipline and patience are the keys to successful investing.

Learn to Invest
Learn how to invest, market drops are normal, the key is to remain calm, and follow the 12 Rules of Simply Investing. Don't wait to start investing.

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4 comments

Tom @ Dividends Diversify
 

12 excellent and outstanding rules every investor should follow Kanwal. Thanks for highlighting them. Tom
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Todd at Invested Wallet
 

Awesome list of 12 simple rules, certainly agree. #12 is always a big one.
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Kanwal Sarai
 

Ankit, Yahoo Finance generally shows the 5-year average dividend yield. I prefer a longer term, but have not found any free resources on the web that provide 10-year or 20-year average dividend yields.
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Ankit Dadwal
 

Sir, I live in India and I am curious to know about stocks also have been checked your videos on YouTube and found beneficial. Just have one doubt how to judge when the dividend is undervalued. Can you share any website where I can go and check when a dividend is undervalue and overvalue
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