A reliable investment strategy: Identify a widely diversified portfolio of high-quality stocks and build up additional holdings at favorable prices.

 

DRIPs can help you do that.

 

Even small investors can follow such a strategy by investing through dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs). That's because it takes ownership of only a single share of company stock to establish an account. Therefore, there is nothing to stop you from buying companies in a variety of industries.

 

As for buying at favorable prices, dollar-cost averaging virtually assures that you will buy most shares at favorable prices. And DRIPs provide an excellent way to dollar-cost average. These plans allow you to invest cash amounts to buy shares directly from the company. Once you are enrolled in a plan, you can invest amounts of as little as $25 or $50 (or many thousands of dollars) to buy shares or fractions of shares. That's different than the traditional way to invest, which is to pay brokerage fees to buy a certain number of shares.