Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) is one possible solution to "breaking the dividend stock cartel."

Albert Einstein once said "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it."

This company has a long history of paying dividends to subscribers, but what I love about this company is the tremendous value that its numerous brands represent to loyal customers.

Today I'm going to tell you a personal story about how I learned the most important lesson of my investment career at a very early age.

The question is repeatedly pondered: What is the secret to Warren Buffett's breathtaking investing success? 

With the U.S. Treasury having its credit rating slashed, Treasury Bonds aren't the low-risk investment they once were. Here are four dividend stocks that are safer, and more profitable, investments.

Gold stocks are not a place investors typically look for high dividend yields. No gold stock currently offers new investors even a 3 percent yield. But that could soon change.

If you're looking for a responsible way to get started with a limited amount of cash, look into dividend reinvestment plans, or DRIPs.

I realize I've been abusing you with a barrage of pieces on gold lately, so I'm going to switch gears to a very exciting opportunity in an ignored and yet very attractive sector of the markets.

It's one of those rare times in the market when some stocks are so incredibly cheap, and have such attractive dividends, that you simply must own them.

It's a value-investor's dream to own a healthy blue-chip stock at less than 10 times earnings.

Twelve years ago, at the infancy of the current bull market in gold, a small group of folks started buying up gold and gold securities.

They didn’t ring a bell or tell their friends. They probably felt a little foolish doing so. They might have felt a little crazy.

Gold had been in a two-decade bear market.

Today, there’s a commodity that’s commonly used, extremely cheap and arguably in a 50 or 60 year bear market.

It’s a commodity that people probably don’t even think about as very investment-worthy – but it’s completely vital to the modern world. Significantly more important than gold even.

And I’m going to tell you how to invest in three companies involved in this commodity today that should see strong gains in the coming years, as well as solid dividends in the meantime.

Is buying now too early? I can’t say for sure. But what I can say is that a bull market in this commodity is as inevitable as the tides. Perhaps literally so…

World famous commodity investor and hedge fund manager Jim Rogers recently discussed what could be the end of the dollar in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

The dollar index has been falling precipitously for the past decade, and the trend seems to be accelerating. Rogers said he thought the end of the dollar was at least a few years off, but he said, “maybe it’s going to happen in a few weeks.”

It’s terrible news of course, even for folks who have a significant share of their portfolio in commodities.

One way to protect yourself and provide income for years to come, no matter what happens to the dollar, would be to buy precious metal securities with a dividend yield.

Chief Investment Strategist Ian Wyatt recently wrote a research report on a gold company that’s currently paying a 9.2% dividend.

If you’re interested in this research, click here for the full story.

Even after Wall Street's greed nearly collapsed the banking system and forced hundred of billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts, bankers are still finding ways to line their own pockets.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that bonuses at publicly traded banks hit $135 billion in 2010. That's a record high for compensation on Wall Street. It works out to about $141,000 per employee.

This $135 billion represents a 5.7 percent increase in combined compensation for the same group of companies in 2009.

There are lots of things to talk about today, but I want to focus, laser-like, on one extremely small company in the commodity sector.

It’s a company that should benefit from higher energy prices as well as any corrections in the broad market.

On that subject: right now it’s vital to keep an eye on your short-term holdings. I’m not a trader by any means, but it doesn’t take a technical master to look at the 200-day simple moving average of the Dow Jones Industrial index, and see that the broad market is about as stretched as it’s been - ever.

Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund quietly announced that it had completed the sale of over 400 metric tonnes of gold to Central Banks and other giant institutions.

Thought it's one of the biggest single sales of gold in world history, it was largely ignored in the mainstream press.

Most remarkably, this record gold sale has had little effect on the price of gold futures.  

With President Obama extending the Bush-era tax cuts for at least two more years, dividend investors can breathe a sigh of relief.

Taxes on dividends were slated to increase from today's 15% rate up to as high as 40% if the current tax rates were allowed to expire.

While some investors are waiting for the seal of approval from the United States Congress to make the tax relief official, many dividend investors are already taking advantage of the good news and are loading up on their favorite dividend stocks.

Higher oil prices are going to make everything more expensive.

They’ll also tend to enrich oil companies. So I recommend casting your lot with theirs.

Today, I’m going to briefly discuss two of the best dividend-paying oil companies in the stock market.

These are two of the biggest oil companies in existence. They’re both trading for less than 11 times trailing earnings (cheap!) and they both have a history of raising their dividends. And they should both continue to pay healthy dividends with frequent increases in the world of rising oil prices.

Irish debt problems are sending shockwaves through the rest of Europe today.

Yields on Italian bonds jumped nearly 0.25% today alone even as Ireland's bailout barely had time to shore up debt woes there.

According to UK newspaper The Telegraph, "Italy's public debt is over 2 trillion euros, the world's third-largest after the U.S. and Japan."

It's not often you get a chance to buy a commodity for the less than the price you'd pay during the Carter Administration. That's how I know the time is right to start nibbling at companies in the sector. The underlying asset is a true bargain - no matter how you dice it. So the companies that can bring this particular commodity to market and remain profitable at today's prices are destined to be huge profit machines in the coming years as the price of all "real stuff" continues to rise.

But if you're reading this letter right now, you probably don't care one lick for this commodity. It's the opposite of sexy commodities like oil or gold. In some PC circles it might even offend. It's certainly not one of those commodity investments that you'll brag to a neighbor about at a cocktail party or over a back-yard cookout.

The thing is, this boring, unloved and slightly un-PC investment has creamed the broad market over the past 23 years.

The next payment will go out to shareholders of record as of September 30^th, with the actual check going out on October 15^th. So you still have a few days to pick up shares if you're interested in grabbing the dividend.

As I said, it's a monthly dividend, so if you want to wait for more of a dip, you won't miss out on the income by waiting a few weeks. But with these monthly players, I'd recommend averaging in each month so you collect dividends all the way along. And reinvest those dividends to enjoy the miracle of compounding interest.

I'm still bullish on this stock. The reasons are the same they were six months ago - the downside for a company like this one is somewhat limited when natural gas prices are this low.

Before I reveal the name of this stock, I want to point out that buying a company with farmland in the mix is a great diversification play - and doubly so when it pays a dividend.

That's because when you buy this type of company, you're getting exposure to the continued profitability of its underlying farm business, but you're also buying actual farmland that the company owns - and if you've been reading this letter, you probably know that I'm extremely bullish on farmland prices.

I also happen to be bullish on the commodities that grow on farms; corn, wheat, sugar, cattle, pigs, chickens, etc.

The dividend is just a small bonus, but I know there are readers out there interested in income, so it's worth a mention - even though it's only a 2% annual yield.

Yesterday I discussed the overwhelming importance of oil and its implications for your investments.

My most important advice in yesterday's issue was buried down at the bottom, so you might have missed it. Here it is to recap:

"if I can leave you with one thing to keep in mind, it's to remember the importance of oil - even for non-commodity investments. You need to look at all of your investments, from stocks even down to bonds and savings accounts, and think about how oil price fluctuations could affect the bottom line of the underlying assets and businesses you're invested in."

I also promised that I would look into some specific oil investments to buy under the assumption that the recession has resumed or is on the horizon.

During a recession, oil prices tend to sag due to decreased demand for oil, which doesn't usually bode well for most types of oil companies.

Today you can buy a 10-year Treasury bond and get a 3.11% yield - but wouldn't you rather own shares in a company that pays a better yield, and has the potential to increase in share price?

I usually try to find companies that benefit directly from higher commodity prices, but in this case, I've found a company that could benefit despite higher commodity prices...

This company pays a 3.4% dividend - and better yet it has the ability to raise or lower prices at will. That's because it takes one of the cheapest commodities on the planet (corn) and turns it into an easily consumable good - with a price markup in the triple digits. Whether you believe we're headed into deflation or inflation, pricing control is hugely important.

More on this pricing control in a minute...

Most people buy Treasuries precisely because they want safety.

If you're worried about safety, I'd make the argument that buying shares of

Natural gas prices have risen 25% since I started urging my Resource Prospector readers to buy natural gas stocks almost three months ago. While the early gains have already been made, it’s still not too late to profit from this long-term trend.

On April 1^st I told readers,

“today, you can buy natural gas companies for extremely cheap. I’m talking cheaper than you’ll likely ever see them again.”

And I recommended picking up some shares of Hugoton Royalty Trust (NYSE: HGT) a company that collects royalties from natural gas production and sales from XTO Energy Inc. (NYSE: XTO) - one of the largest natural gas companies in the United States.

Since then, the stock is up 26% and it has paid two monthly dividends to folks who bought before April 30^th. And the company is still paying an 8.8% dividend. Compared with what you’ll earn in your money market account or a CD, the yield is pretty attractive.

My general prediction for a low coming after the next 10 days is in line with research from Energy Analyst Gregor Macdonald, who contributes to Energy World Profits. 

Gregor has been looking at seasonal tendencies going back 25 years, and it’s normal for crude oil to hit an initial high in April, and then bottom in June before hitting a new, higher high later in the summer. 

So my point is that if you’re currently a shareholder in oil stocks, don’t sell.  But you should look for opportunities to add to your positions.  I believe the time will come between now and the last week in June.

To take advantage of these lower prices, which may never be this low again, I’ve talked about buying BP (NYSE: BP).  Seasonally low oil prices are the last of this company’s worries, as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico seems to be snaking its way towards the Florida Keys.  I don’t know how much more hated this company can get. But regardless of what happens, I’m confident that BP will still be in the business of selling oil for many years after this disaster is just an unpleasant memory. 

If you don’t yet own gold it’s not too late. As soon as possible, buy gold, whether it’s bullion, stocks or the State Street SPDR Gold ETF (NYSE: GLD) if you must.

Gold’s run is by no means over, and I can list dozens if not hundreds of reasons why gold should be a part of your portfolio – the biggest reason being that gold is the best way to insure against the planet-wide epidemic of weakening currencies.

Gold is exciting. It’s sexy. Gold’s stocks especially are fun to watch and study closely. Drilling results, assays and ore mineralization might sound boring to you, but trust me, it’s exciting to own a stock ahead of major findings.

So I could talk about gold all day, but right now another commodity in a less-exciting sector is bouncing off its lows. It’s an energy commodity that we have a lot of in North America – enough to last 100 years by some estimates. It’s cleaner than gasoline and coal, and it can be used as fuel in power plants as well as automobiles. And right now, I believe the trend has the potential to be at least as profitable as the bull market in gold.

I hope you had a great weekend. I got out and played 18 holes of golf; always a humbling experience. The game of golf is a great metaphor for investing. Sometimes you can do everything right given the information you have, and things can go against you in a truly astounding way.

I keep my left arm straight, head down, follow through and just as often as not, I’m peeking into someone’s yard or digging through brambles for a $2 plastic ball. (By the way if anyone has a foolproof method for curing a truly debilitating slice, please email me at editorial@resourceprospector.com.)

Likewise, sometimes you can do everything right in the markets and still lose. As prudent investors, we seek to buy companies with low price-to-earnings ratios in sectors with growth potential, with little debt and competent CEOs, a history of raising their dividend, etc. etc.

And all those best laid plans can go against us for any reason or no reason. Bad news in the broad market has made mutton of even the best companies.

I set a timer on my laptop calendar to go off today, because I had to remind myself of important news from the Energy Information Administration coming out in exactly one week.

If you read my April 6 issue of the Resource Prospector a few weeks ago, you know what I’m talking about.

From that issue:

“On April 30, the EIA is scheduled to release its natural-gas monthly report for February. In the report, the agency will use the new methods to estimate gas supply and revise its January numbers.”

I believe these new methods will reveal significantly lower natural gas reserves than the marketplace currently expects. And more importantly, I believe this news will move natural gas prices much higher in the near future.

And while I’m content with my analysis, sometimes it’s nice to get some support from another contrarian viewpoint.