Sorapop/iStock via Getty Images Co-authored by Treading Softly. Investors today have a much shorter holding in the history of the financial markets. There are many things encouraging someone to be a momentum or swing trader: someone who does not hold for long periods and rapidly buys or sells based on the emotions of the moment, or the fears that govern their concerns about capital preservation.
Most brokers offer commission-free trades, and those bright-green or bright red colors next to your holdings evoke emotions. Turn on the TV and talking heads will be screaming BUY!, SELL! JUST DO SOMETHING! In modern times, there appears to be a perception that investing in a company for a year or two is a “long time.” When someone tasks you with the mission of trying to find holdings that they could hold forever, the concerns and risks that exist in the unknown can be terrifying.
For this reason, if I were going to pick holdings that I would hold forever, I would choose dividend-paying securities that have extremely strong payment coverage, often higher up in the capital structure than common equities. There is a higher degree of safety, the higher you climb into the capital stack. The downside is that if you climb too high, you reach debt-like securities with a set maturity date, precluding you from being able to hold it forever.
Today, I want to take a look at two picks that I view as holdings that you could buy today and hold on to for a perpetual time frame. The issuers of bo.
