first off welcome to the forum, these are my quick opinions, hope it helps, do not follow most of these just my thoughts.
1. home ownership is important, it is good you own your own house/home.
2. good to save for retirment IRA ect.
as for your DRIP/SPP account through Buy and hold....
These are all long term holds, and this account is purely for Long term growth and it is money we don't need until our retirement goal of 55.
The company's are:
Altria
Bed Bath and beyond (have to watch, retail is very difficult industry)
Dfib it will be profitable and most of the research on it seems positive will have to look into..
CIN
csco well run and managed but overall feel it is expensive for the growth, especially a company their size. most techs would not classify as long term...
ccur (who I used to work for)
cop
age financial company with growing earnings, long term probably a good holding. rising rates never good for financials in short term
fnm Fannie Mae
GM the big three have done better than I thought however if the economy slows so does these stocks. Growth in Asia is a plus and they seem to be bringing out many more models quicker every three years, still they still give rebates away during the "good times" in 5-10 years Japan and Asia will finally start to make an impact in the truck market....
GE should follow the market and not a bad company, feel it is fully priced but not a bad long term holding. own some, write options sometimes against the position.
jblu believe not airline should be a LONG TERM HOLD, these are trading stocks, I traded AC in 1999 loved the stock went up nicely, in 2002 hated it at over $6 thought it would go to zero, it will these things take time. hard to make money long term. JBLU is well run, just not a long term hold in my view.....10+ years.
mcd own it, hope they increase their dividends year after year, modest growth, growing div, if that changes will sell.
nok agree phones have great growth, however they lost market share to rivals, what is the hottest phone...no idea, not sure if Motorola that had a much better year and nokia know either.
pep
pfe
sbc own small amount of this and smaller amount of BCE. will have to grow earnings because yield will not support stock in rising rate environment.
siri not a long term holding....watch this is the stock that triples, still not a long term holding. makes no money this year or next. would rather own the debt than the equity.
wm looks cheap always does still low pe and has a good yield
xrx rising earings they seem to be turning it around hate the space but they are doing better.
i'm hoping to hit 14% annually with this account for the longhaul
now you are putting in $400 monthly into a plan and these are the stocks,
first 20 stocks seem to be a lot to watch or even know unless you enjoy following the markets and the stocks.
you may want to key on 6-12 stocks and build core positions. also some of the core positions should include index products.
for instance plenty of index products like diamonds, spiders,QQQ many more to track the larger indexes.
also do not forget foreign content, just to protect yourself from a weaker US dollar.
I have a DRIP/SPP plan in Canada, Buy and hold and sharebuilder are not in Canada so have these set up with the companies.
most of my holdings are in brokerage accounts but this is my DRIP/SPP
holdings
BNS,BMO,CIBC cdn. banks have outperformed the index. long term holds increase earnings and divs. note would lower my positions in these stocks in a trading account. next few months.
ECA Alberta Energy had a DRIP/SPP also owned CP someday it will hit $60 cdn........
Riocan trust reit pays just under 8%, shopping malls well run, short term weakness long term hold.
SU Suncor, most people have never heard of the Albera oilsands especially in the US but Suncor has decades of reserves and increasing production..... small position as government royalties will hurt the stock short term.
TRP
ENB two pipelines over 3% yield and well run. slow growth but very conservative.
good luck
thanks
selkirk
