3 Big Dividend Plays to Make in September

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tdp2664 InvestorPlace August was agonizing, to say the least. The volatility-laden indexes have scared the heck out of investors, and now everyone is asking the same question: "What am I supposed to buy now?" Well, one option is to follow Warren Buffett into banking stocks. Buffett — via Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A ) — just plunked down $5 billion for a stake in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ), which immediately forced investors to start looking at the industry. I have respect for Buffett, but you shouldn't follow in his footsteps on this one. Buffett got a special preferred-stock deal on Bank of America that other investors can't get, so you'd be taking a huge risk that Buffett is not. In fact, don't buy bank stocks at all — I don't. I'm a former banking analyst; I know better. I don't have time to go through all the reasons why I don't trust banks' accounting, but I can tell you that the numbers aren't there. There's no earnings growth, buying pressure or any of the important fundamental data points you need for a solid investment. What I would recommend you do is get serious about the real trends in this market, and when you look at the options investors have right now, there's only one place for them to go this September — dividend stocks. I can almost see the eyes rolling and hear the yawns coming out, but the truth is the biggest wealth-builders this month are going to be from the big dividend-payers. Let's face it: Because of the carnage in August, there has been a flight — no, make that an all-out stampede — to quality. Investors simply can't afford to get burned again, and they are heading for safety . In a typical year, that would push them into Treasuries. But it's just not an option here at the end of 2011. With two-year Treasuries yielding a paltry 0.38%, and some big-named reliable blue chips yielding more than 5%, the money is going to flock to the biggest yields — and that means it's going into the stock market . Did you know that the entire Standard & Poor's 500 Index