**Forget Bull vs Bear—Just Buy Stocks People Can't Avoid**

Stop obsessing over headlines. Wall Street's endless recession narratives are nothing but noise. Real investors should be chasing what matters: companies selling things people need no matter what the economy does.

Here's the thing—most investors own things people ditch when times get tight. We buy different. We own essentials. Food, for example. People always eat. Three meals a day, whether the market rallies or crashes.

**ADM Shows How "Boring" Wins Big**

Take **Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM)**—the company processing the corn that ends up in everything at the grocery store. Sounds boring? That's the point. Over the past year, while markets got choppy, ADM delivered a clean **26% total return** to disciplined investors who got this right. Dividends, buybacks, price appreciation. No stress.

The stock recently pulled back as Wall Street fretted about "crush margins"—basically, the profit ADM makes crushing soybeans into meal and oil. Vanilla investors saw this as a red flag and bailed. Wrong move. Agricultural cycles are predictable. When corn prices drop, farmers plant less. When supply tightens, prices bounce back. We're sitting near a cyclical low right now, and catalysts are lining up.

**Why the Math Works (Bull or Bear)**

Global population keeps climbing. Developing nations are getting wealthier, demanding more protein. Raising cattle needs massive corn and soy feed inputs—roughly **six pounds of feed per pound of beef**. This "multiplier effect" creates a structural floor under grain prices. They're already as low as they're likely to go.

Two tailwinds are about to hit. First, the EPA's renewable fuel standards push higher biomass diesel targets—that boosts corn and soybean demand fast. Second, ADM's cutting **$500-700 million in annual costs** over the next few years, squeezing more profit per share.

**The Compounding Effect: Buybacks + Dividends**

Here's where it gets interesting. ADM isn't just paying dividends—it's cutting its share count by **14% over five years**. When a company buys back stock, remaining shares own a bigger slice of profits. This silently powers earnings per share growth even when total earnings stay flat.

ADM is a **Dividend King**—50+ consecutive years of payout increases. Through the '70s inflation, dot-com, the Great Recession, COVID—never missed a raise. That track record speaks louder than any quarterly earnings call.

The current **3.5% yield** gets paid while you wait. And with a dividend hike coming soon, this is your last chance to buy before the raise kicks in.

**The Bigger Picture**

This isn't about market timing. This is about owning things that work in any economy. ADM has all the boxes checked: essential products, boring business model, bulletproof balance sheet, upside potential, and generous income. Whether 2026 brings bull runs or bear tactics, people eat. ADM profits. You collect gains.

That's how real retirement wealth gets built—not by sweating cable news takes, but by owning boring companies that deliver results year after year.