BY SHARON MARTIN

I was trying to figure out why so many people hate our president when I had an insight: too many people have seen no improvements in their life in the last six years because of politically-motivated obstruction and corporate greed.

It doesn’t matter who kept us from rebuilding the middle class; President Obama is the face of the nation, and too many here are still teetering on the edge.

Back in the ‘90s I read every book on investing I could get my hands on. I read Jack Bogle. I read Peter Lynch. I watched Wall Street Week every Friday night. And I discovered DRIPs.

DRIPs, Dividend Reinvestment Programs, allow individuals to buy stocks directly from a corporation. You don’t have to buy any certain number of stocks and you don’t have to have a brokerage account. I was working as a freelance writer and earned the staggering sum of $3,000-$4,000 a year. I put all I could into a few DRIPs.

The dividends are reinvested. DRIPs don’t generate pocket change. This is a retirement plan. It worked for me. And in the past few years I’ve seen the stocks, some of which I’ve held for 20 years, become a real retirement fund so long as I intend to do all my traveling through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

President Obama’s administration has been good for me and for others who invest. In fact, when the stock market tanked in 2008, I took the opportunity to put a few hundred dollars into a couple of favorite stocks. It’s what the big boys do with their millions – buy low, sell high.

History will tell you that the stock market does best under Democratic administrations. Truly. So why are so many investors Republicans? Perhaps they need that Republican crash for the opportunity to buy low.

Yep.

The very people who stir up hate against the president under whose watch the stock market has more than doubled need another crash for their next buying opportunities.

Let that sink in.

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer