GOLDMAN SCANDAL CAUSES MARKET DROP

The big scandal at Goldman Sachs put investors on edge this week, causing a minor drop in share prices across the board. While scandal in corporate America is never a good thing, it's especially troublesome in such a fragile economic recovery. I'm sure there will be a great deal of investors running for cover, pulling their money out of the market in anticipation of a much more severe drop in the market. I for one intend to stay fully invested and plan to be ready to take advantage of any major drop in share prices to add more shares to my investment portfolio.

Got my first dividend from Campbell's Soup this past week, was pretty happy about that. I'm currently holding shares of CPB in both my regular investment account and my IRA. I think they're a great long term holding. Their current dividend yield is only 3.07%, however with their great franchise product line and ample earnings per share I hope to see some increases in dividends in the years to come.

I will also be collecting dividends this month from all of my investments in energy limited partnerships. I didn't realize when I made my initial investments that they all paid in the same month and on the same day. While I like to have payments spread out more evenly, I can see where having a big lump sum payout every quarter could come in handy at times. I plan to hold this money in cash in my money market account until I find another good dividend stock so I can put it to work. In the mean time, I'll draw interest on the cash.

Haven't made a lot of big moves in either of my investment accounts lately. I did end dividend re investments in AEA, the cash advance company. I wasn't especially happy with some of the things I read in their annual report, so I don't intend to invest any additional funds with them. However, I will continue to hold shares I currently own and draw the dividends in cash. Otherwise I haven't made a lot many adjustments to my investment plan for this year. Happy to report everything is moving along quite well and I'm on target for reaching or exceeding my goals for the year.