Your Freedom Portfolio - investing for early retirement

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, March, 2001 by Manuel Schiffres

Ditto for shares of Nortel Networks (NT), the leading provider of optical-networking equipment.

Health care. A pick-and-shovel company, Applied Biosystems (ABI) develops instruments, reagents and software needed in biotechnology research.

Biotech pioneer Genentech (DNA) has a good pipeline of new products to treat heart disease and cancer.

HCA (HCA), the nation's largest hospital-management company, should benefit from aggressive restructuring.

As steady as they come, health care stalwart Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is involved in drugs, medical devices and consumer products.

Drug giant Pfizer (PFE), which last year swallowed Warner-Lambert, is widely considered to have one of the best pipelines of new drugs.

Financial services. Capital One Financial (COF), an aggressive credit card issuer, relies heavily on technology to fuel growth.

A financial-services smorgasbord, Citigroup (C) owns Citibank, the Salomon Smith Barney brokerage firm and Travelers insurance.

J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), the new combination of J.P. Morgan and Chase Manhattan, creates a global financial powerhouse.

Market turmoil should ultimately benefit Merrill Lynch (MER), the leading full-service brokerage firm, as individual investors conclude they need advice after all.

Consumer. Best known for soft drinks, Pepsico (PEP) now gains 65% of its total profits from its Frito Lay snack-food division.

Everyone's got to eat, which makes Safeway (SWY), the nation's third-largest supermarket chain, a classic defensive stock.

An entertainment behemoth that owns CBS, Paramount Pictures, MTV Networks, Blockbuster video and other properties, Viacom (VIA) should benefit from growing spending on leisure activities.

Other. A major independent power producer with interests in 124 generating plants globally, AES Corp. (AES) benefits from deregulation and privatization.

Shares of ExxonMobil (XOM), the world's largest oil company, provide a hedge against rising energy prices.

Tyco International (TYC), a fast-growing conglomerate, is involved in electrical components, underwater telecom systems, fire-protection systems and electronic-security services.

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