UPON GRADUATION from high school in 1941, my first job was as an office boy at DuPont. At Christmas, my boss handed me a present of $25, equal to a third of my monthly salary. No one has ever spent as many hours on calculations and projections as to how such a windfall should be invested. The result: I purchased a lifetime subscription to Reader's Digest. By age 80, that had averaged out to 3.4 cents per issue.
- D.W., Solvang, Calif.
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A great dividend-paying stock, for example, can keep generating income for decades, while it appreciates in value. For instance, Procter & Gamble has been paying dividends for 122 consecutive years and raising them for 56 consecutive years. IBM has been paying quarterly dividends since 1918. (The Motley Fool owns or has recommended both companies in its newsletters.)
