END OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BOOSTS SHARE PRICES

The end of the government shutdown has boosted the stock prices, at least in the short term.  While I'm always happy to see an increase in value of my holdings, I'm wondering if we'll see a replay of the whole mess again in January.  I do agree with what President Obama said in his news conference today about Washington needing to change they way they do business.  Although it's not so much the way they "do business" but the lack of getting any business done.  Perhaps they've learned something from the whole mess.  I certainly hope so.  It's clear no one gained anything from the standoff and in my view, everyone from the President on down lost a lot of respect from world leaders and fellow citizens over the way the whole situation was handled.  My mom would have said, "That's about enough of that."

Read some good things about some of my individual stock holdings.  While I've invested in several mutual funds as part of my program to rebuild my investment portfolio, I still think it's important to have good quality individual stocks to round out a portfolio.  I'm a firm believer in dividend investing, but I think growth is important as well and I firmly believe you have a greater chance of growth with individual stocks than with funds.  So I settled on a mixture of the two and so far my portfolio is performing as well or better than previous investments.