Hi Dew. For me it's a bit early to understand if 3M can pay down $15B+ in agreed payments while maintaining their cash flow. I think the dividend is safe but I don't see how they maintain that and grow earnings in this environment. I may be a bit overly cautious as I was also a long term investor in T and the dividend has not helped much as a badly managed company has fallen to half its recent value. The same is true here. If I had to choose between 5.75% in MMM dividend and a .1% treasury, I'd probably decide to put 2-3% of my retirement in MMM but I'm making well over 5% in treasuries and CDs. The taxes are a bit higher but I'm free to go fishing with some friends during the week. It's not a bad tradeoff while this higher interest rate environment lasts.
Rule #1, Don't lose money. Rule #2, read rule #1. - WB.
