Crimson,
I agree with you on Honeywell. I already own it. MMM does offer some diversification. Pretty much all of my current industrials are tied to aviation or defense. MMM may be a little too diversified, though I may not be qualified to have a meaningful opinion on this matter. I'm not so sure they haven't become a little too difficult to manage. They manufacture a ridiculous amount of SKUs. How much is too much before at least some small spinoffs are prudent?
I wish to own some MMM in because....
1. See Mikes post above.
2. It's an aristocrat and a high yielding blue chip, hence it is in MANY ETFs and indexes. Part of the reason why it is always too expensive, even when they struggle. Maybe MMM should price closer to $100, but it doesn't, and I don't think most of us will be happy if it ever does because the global economy just got bad.
4. I've used many of their products in my personal and professional life. They have MANY very respected brands.
5. They are headquartered in Minnesota, and/or have major operations near me, like over half of my portfolio.
You won't find #5 in many investment books lol. Of course that is not my primary buy decision. It does however cause a company to be researched at some point, and considered. A lot of times average Joe factory worker tells me things of importance, that don't make the business news for weeks, if it even makes it then. MMM doesn't have to be my favorite stock to warrant starting a position. I don't find it easy to have thirty truly great ideas at all times.
As far as not buying stock a few shares at a time. Although I have rarely done it before this month, I'll defend the practice to those who wish to do it. Do you ever buy a stock and then it goes down instead of up? I'm afraid that does happen to me, sometimes within the hour. Those are many times I wish I'd bought 25 shares instead of 100 immediately.
It's not for me, be we have folks here that desire a 100 stock portfolio. They gotta buy something years too late if it's larger purchases only. And finally, I can think of a long,long list of stocks I'd be pleased to have only bought ten shares of 20 years ago. Like you, I occasionally just sell off a small position, take a profit and call it good.
I agree with you on Honeywell. I already own it. MMM does offer some diversification. Pretty much all of my current industrials are tied to aviation or defense. MMM may be a little too diversified, though I may not be qualified to have a meaningful opinion on this matter. I'm not so sure they haven't become a little too difficult to manage. They manufacture a ridiculous amount of SKUs. How much is too much before at least some small spinoffs are prudent?
I wish to own some MMM in because....
1. See Mikes post above.
2. It's an aristocrat and a high yielding blue chip, hence it is in MANY ETFs and indexes. Part of the reason why it is always too expensive, even when they struggle. Maybe MMM should price closer to $100, but it doesn't, and I don't think most of us will be happy if it ever does because the global economy just got bad.
4. I've used many of their products in my personal and professional life. They have MANY very respected brands.
5. They are headquartered in Minnesota, and/or have major operations near me, like over half of my portfolio.
You won't find #5 in many investment books lol. Of course that is not my primary buy decision. It does however cause a company to be researched at some point, and considered. A lot of times average Joe factory worker tells me things of importance, that don't make the business news for weeks, if it even makes it then. MMM doesn't have to be my favorite stock to warrant starting a position. I don't find it easy to have thirty truly great ideas at all times.
As far as not buying stock a few shares at a time. Although I have rarely done it before this month, I'll defend the practice to those who wish to do it. Do you ever buy a stock and then it goes down instead of up? I'm afraid that does happen to me, sometimes within the hour. Those are many times I wish I'd bought 25 shares instead of 100 immediately.
It's not for me, be we have folks here that desire a 100 stock portfolio. They gotta buy something years too late if it's larger purchases only. And finally, I can think of a long,long list of stocks I'd be pleased to have only bought ten shares of 20 years ago. Like you, I occasionally just sell off a small position, take a profit and call it good.