Today I want to point out how you can get back into the market with relative safety, while collecting a significant dividend, and having some real potential upside. The following five stocks do all that, and more. Together they offer diversification and balance. None of them will come as a surprise, but perhaps as a group they will give you some investment courage going forward.

Heath care and consumer products: Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) offers a 3.46% yield and has been in business more than 100 years. It is owned broadly by institutions and individual investors globally and sells its 2,000 plus products globally. JNJ has been a winner for investors for a long time, and based on any historical metrics you choose it is trading dirt cheap right now at a P/E of 12 with an ROE of 30% and a very safe beta of 0.53, meaning about half the volatility of the overall market. It closed at $56.60 last Friday.

Technology: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) offers a 2.23% yield and is about to release Windows 7, which is likely to be adopted throughout the world after almost everyone shunned something called Vista in favor of the older Windows XP -- including me. In addition to a new operating system, there will be new updates of most everything else including Microsoft Office. MSFT just recently released a new search engine called Bing to relatively positive reviews. Supreme profit margins, low beta, historically low price closing at 23.35 last Friday,and more (see Chasing Value: Microsoft, Microsoft and more Microsoft).

Utility: Southern Company (NYSE: SO) offers a 5.49% yield and I have owned it for quite some time. I hold this one in my Roth IRA, and I added it to my latest portfolio when it dropped down to $28 per share (see Serious Money: Duke Energy & Southern 'Power-Full'). Utilities have always been the foundation of fixed income investors looking for stable yield and Southern fits the bill. The very low beta of 0.35 makes it safe and the fact that it is in the fastest growing region of the country and will participating in the development of new nuclear power plants gives it plenty of upside from its still low closing price as of last Friday of $31.90.

Energy: Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) offers a 3.94% yield, paying you to wait out the economy, good or bad, and giving you a foothold in the energy sector. I have read reasons why oil will be going up, and why it may go down, but right now the price of oil is double what it was five months ago and half what it was last summer. That seems like an ideal time to get in. CVX has a beta of 0.68 and closed at $65.95 last Friday.

Food: General Mills (NYSE: GIS) offers a 3.11% yield and people have to eat. General Mills is vying to be the U.S.'s number one breakfast cereal maker, competing with rival Kellogg (NYSE: K), holding a 29.8% market share. Did I mention it's safe and stable, because of the five stocks here GIS has the lowest beta of all at 0.27. In this tough economy GIS has been able to grow its sales and stick to its knitting. It closed Friday at $55.28.

What do these stocks have in common? Popular brands, recognized management, recurring revenue, strong cash flow, dependable dividends, good prospects for future growth, and more. Of course you might think there is nothing novel about this group of stock picks -- and that's the point -- you can get back into the market without losing sleep and make more money than you would be sitting on the sidelines.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of JNJ and SO, have bought more recently and have open options. The other three are on my watch list.