[Toddsterpatriot]

So what?

What'd you think about my uncovering of those top secret profit numbers? Pretty cool, huh?

Wow, 6% dividend! You'd think that controlling the Fed would get you a higher rate of return.

[rednesss]

Profit, from Latin meaning "to make progress", is defined in two different ways. Pure economic profit is the increase in wealth that an investor has from making an investment, taking into consideration all costs associated with that investment including the opportunity cost of capital. Accounting profit is the difference between retail sales price and the costs of manufacture. A key difficulty in measuring either definition of profit is in defining costs.

Dividends are payments made by a company to its shareholders. When a company earns a profit, that money can be put to two uses: it can either be re-invested in the business (called retained earnings), or it can be paid to the shareholders of the company as a dividend. Many companies retain a portion of their earnings and pay the remainder to their shareholders.

And anyone who has ever been self-employed knows that the biggest friend to you when it comes time for taxes, is business "COSTS" wink wink, nudge nudge. Now where are those receipts.