I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and nice long weekend — or at least squeezed a nap or two in between half-drunken political arguments with that one crazy uncle we all seem to have (if you don’t know what I mean, then you are probably that crazy uncle).
Anyway, I spent the weekend at our family house on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and our gastronomic choices reflected the location. You see, we cook two turkeys each year: one traditional, oven-cooked bird coated with rosemary, thyme, and sage, and another that is made with an Old Bay dry-rub and then deep-fried.
(Word to the wise, be very careful deep-frying turkeys, my father and I have come damn close to deep-frying our own appendages).
For the bulk of you who aren’t familiar with either the Eastern Shore or Old Bay seasoning, let me give you a quick and valuable primer…
Old Bay is perhaps the most underrated seasoning in America. Here in Baltimore, it is practically a religion. You’ll find it caked onto our famous blue crabs, dusted on steamed shrimp, and even tossed with French fries.
It is also the “secret ingredient” to the best damn Bloody Mary in town.
And while I do love me some traditional turkey, I have to say that given the choice, I’ll go with the deep-fried Old Bay Turkey any day of the week. It’s crispy, spicy, and almost criminally delicious.
Not only does Old Bay add a complex, smoky flavor to just about any food you can think up, it’s also a key ingredient for a spiced up retirement portfolio.
Allow me to explain…
Let’s start with a quick, fun fact about Old Bay.
It was developed by German immigrant Gustav Brunn in 1939 in the same Chesapeake Bay area I spend Thanksgiving. At that time, crabs were so plentiful that bars in Baltimore actually gave them away for free so all of the bar flies would stick around and drink even more booze.
Old Bay was essentially created to spice up the crabs and speed the drinking process along — and if you’ve had a crab feast in Maryland, you are all too familiar with how very effective it is at making beers disappear as fast as they are set in front of you.
Old Bay is produced by famed Maryland spice company McCormick & Company (NYSE: MKC). With $4.2 billion in annual sales, the company sells spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and other popular flavor products to the entire food industry — retail outlets, food manufacturers, and food service businesses.
One of its taglines is: Saving Your World From Boring Food, and it certainly accomplishes that. The spices are top notch, and I personally use them all the time in my cooking. I’m positive you do too… even if you don’t realize it.
But besides making me look better in the kitchen, McCormick also pulls in consistent revenue each and every year.
That’s because it completely dominates the market. Not only does it have a 22% global market share — four times more than its closest competitor — but more than 60% of its sales come from products that rank number one in their market.
But the main reason I love the stock is that it has quietly raised its dividend each and every year — for the past 91 years! That qualifies it as a dividend aristocrat in a big way, and the ability to reward shareholders so consistently is exactly the type of thing I look for in a hold-forever retirement stock.
For those unfamiliar with dividend aristocrats, they are S&P 500 stocks that have raised their dividend each and every year for the past 25 years. As far as risk is concerned, if a company can afford to keep rewarding its shareholders with ever-increasing dividend yields, it’s a damn good bet that it’ll be in business for the long haul.
This index itself has returned 183% over the last decade — almost double the S&P 500 over the same time frame. Now, that’s quite impressive on its own. However, if you go back a little further, the results are even more remarkable:
Have you made 1,494% in less than 20 years with practically no risk? I seriously doubt it…
McCormick has done even better than that. It has returned 1,584%. So if you had put a basically risk-free $10,000 in McCormick in 1990, you’d be looking at around $160,000 today. I’d say that is a hell of a return… and I didn’t even include dividend payments, which would have pushed your return to almost $270,000.
That is a stellar track record. But despite my overall bullishness on the company, I wouldn’t just dump a bunch of money into it right now. I only buy McCormick through a special program that allows me to buy a stock when it’s cheap, compound my interest when it’s expensive, and best of all — never, ever pay a broker fee.
Here’s how to do it…
Someone once said that “the taste of your life depends on the spices you used to brew it.”
I sometimes liken my portfolio to a nice, homemade dinner. In this case, I would say that McCormick stock should be but one spice in your retirement portfolio. It will give your meal some flavor and zest, but you can’t just eat condiments and spices. If you want the meat and potatoes — or deep-fried turkey, as it were — then I would check out these three companies.
Not only do they pay out far more dividend income than McCormick — which currently yields around 2% — but they will actually pay you to start one of their retirement programs. So you can bake in up to 5% returns regardless of what the stock does, without having to do a thing. I make these companies my main course, and base the sides and spices around them.
If McCormick is the Old Bay, then these three companies can act as the Turkey in your retirement dinner.
I assure you — it’s damn good eating…
