Why This Dividend Stock Broke My Heart, and How You Can Avoid My Misery

My uncle worked for Brown Shoe (NYSE: BWS) in the 1980s. I was a kid back then, and knew little about the market, but he purchased about 20 shares of his employer for me and my sister and cousins. I did know that the Brown Shoe dividend checks I got in the mail every quarter were incredible. As a kid in school, I needed money to buy junk food, Birch beer, baseball cards, and arcade games. I made money by doing the stuff kids do to make money: delivering newspapers, raking leaves, stacking wood. They were labor-intensive and didn't pay all that well. By contrast, those dividend checks were effortless.... Read more