Last week, while I was on vacation, I decided to invest some money in well-known companies that have a good dividend yield. I ended up buying shares in American Electric Power (AEP), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Verizon (VZ).

Currently, I am in the green on all of my new investments. I'm up $4.33 with AEP, $9.49 with JNJ and a whopping $26.02 with VZ.

Previously, I had bought shares in Apple (AAPL), General Electric (GE) and Honda (HMC). I'm currently up 49% with AAPL, 14% with HMC and I'm down 31% with GE.

In spite of the economy, actually, because of fall then recovery of the stock market, my portfolio is up 9.28% or $783.57.

Buying up Apple and Honda during the low points last year so far as turned out to be a very good move. Buying GE has not yet gone well for me, but even in spite of that, I'm still doing well enough, considering.

In other financial news, I'm still in love with T. Rowe Price's "Select Mid Cap Growth II". It has consistently performed well for me and it currently has the 2nd best YTD return of all the funds available in my 401(k) plan.