If you were going to dump things into just a few companies, then look around for things that have lasted with time and have always gone up. Colgate, McDonalds, 3M... However, while I have confidence in these companies, its true that one may go out of business at some point in time. Therefore, an ETF or a mutual fund might not be out of the question.
Why not just buy SPY and enroll in DRIP.... You will be making money in up years and losing in down years. You won't be worried about whether your idea of a Large company paying good dividends will still be paying good dividends or even being in the industry as the world evolves. Also you won't be wondering why the few stocks you picked are not going up while the market is at new highs while your stocks are losing money. Just my 2 cents though
Dividend investing is not my game, but for someone who is looking to just park some money I would look at some of the preferred ETF's. www.etfconnection.com has handy lists of them. As I recall they pay about 6-8% yield. Diversifying through a few ETF's makes more sense to me than just buying a handful of common stocks. High qulaity common will not pay that much, and you have individual company risk. One blown earnings will take away a couple of years worth of dividends. REITs, MLPs and income trusts also would be worth considering. Again, not a recommendation, just a suggestion.
If your considering ETF's, there are suppose to be 290 or so new EFT's coming to market shortly. I think they filed for listing earlier this month. I would expect them in the next couple weeks or a month... J.C.
One more thing. Sharebuilder.com. FREE dividend reinvestment plan. $4 trades. When the dividend is paid, it rolls back in for FREE.
CEF's, as posted earlier : http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58688 http://www.etfconnect.com/
Dividend plays are nice if you are already financially well off, but since you are only 23 years old and looking to build a nest egg you should have a portion of your money in small and mid cap stocks. Good luck.
Not necessarily if he is looking for something low maintenance. Investing in small caps requires the time and effort to watch and monitor. If you reinvest the dividends for many, many years you can increase your share balance and the stock can putter along and you will make money since you own more shares. And if the share price rises, even better. Reinvesting dividends over years can be a powerful and low maintenance thing. This is of course an 'investment' not a day trading strategy. Very different courses of action.