In her The MoneyPaper, editor Vita Nelson looks to stocks offering dividend reinvestment plans. Here, she highlights Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) as a featured holding in her model portfolio.

"Abbott is a diversified, multinational, health care firm.The shares have not responded to the recent stock market rallies in part due to the defensive nature of health care stocks.

"Uncertainty regarding health care reform is also a factor in the static share price of recent months. ABT shares are now trading below 11 times 2010 earnings estimates, compared with about 15 for the S&P 500.

"I've always been a big fan of putting into the market on a regular basis regardless of what is happening in the overall market," explains Chuck Carlson, long considered one of the advisory industry's leading experts on dividend reinvestment plans.

Here, the editor of The DRIP Investor offers a 10-stock "autopilot" portfolio that is diversified among 10 high quality dividend-paying stocks and requiring a monthly investment of under $500.

Carlson says, "If I've learned anything in the more than a quarter of a century of following the markets, it is this fact - buying stocks when you know you should (i.e. during sharp down moves) is really difficult. Our heads says we should; after all, substantial market downturns create the best values.

"But our emotions usually take control, thus making it very difficult to pull the trigger and put money into the market when stocks are falling.

"That's why I've always been a big fan of 401(k) plans. With these investment vehicles, investment programs are put on 'autopilot,' with dollars being put into the market on a regular basis (usually each paycheck) regardless of what is happening in the overall market.

"Fortunately, investors can duplicate the autopilot feature of 401(k) plans with their DRIP investments by taking advantage of automatic monthly investment features provided by most DRIPs.

"Companies dependent on consumer spending have been under a cloud on Wall Street," cautions Chuck Carlson, the industry's leading expert on dividend reinvestment plans.

"However, Disney (NYSE: DIS) is one of those consumer-dependent stocks where conventional wisdom may not be correct," he adds in his The DRIP Investor.

"With $4-per-gallon gasoline, one would think that the high cost of travel would take some steam out of the firm's theme park attendance. However, recent results on this front were decent, and the firm's other businesses have held up, too.

"To be sure, a prolonged recession would impact business. Still, Disney has done a nice job of positioning its theme parks as an affordable vacation for families, and that should help it continue to weather
economic weakness.

"Disney surprised Wall Street with the resiliency of its theme-park and resort business in the fiscal second quarter. Revenue for the unit jumped 11% in the quarter. Results were aided by a boost in international visitors taking advantage of the weak dollar.

"In 1999, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) went from less than $4 to over $92; but the party came to a screeching halt over the next three years," recalls Chuck Carlson, an expert on stocks that offer dividend reinvestment plans.

In The DRIP Investor, he explains, "The stock has been stuck in a trading range for the last four years. But that looks like it is about to end, as it recently moved to a new 52-week high and is setting its sites on its 2006 high of $53."

"Strong earnings and greater visibility on some litigation matters should pave the way for solid gains in the second half of 2008. Technology stocks should remain among the market's leading sectors, and Qualcomm offers an excellent play in the group.

"Qualcomm generates 90% of its revenue from cell-phone chipsets and license royalties paid by users of its intellectual property. Qualcomm's chips are used in mobile phones and wireless infrastructures around the globe.

"Growth here should remain strong as networks convert to third-generation technology and emerging markets expand and upgrade their infrastructure.

"Dividend growth has become increasingly scarce on Wall Street," says says Chuck Carlson, an expert on dividend reinvestment plans. In his The DRIP Investor he looks at two stocks boosting their payouts.

"For the first time in five years, the number of companies in 2007 boosting their dividends declined nearly
6% from the previous year, according to Standard & Poor's. And the slowdown in dividend growth continued in the first quarter of 2008.

"The first quarter marked the seventh consecutive three-month period of year-over-year declines in the number of companies raising dividends. Through the first three months of this year, 19% fewer companies raised dividends than in the year-earlier quarter.

"Even more alarming, 83 companies decreased their dividends during the fi rst quarter, according to S&P. That's up from just 19 in the same period in 2007 and is the highest number of dividend decreases since 1991.

"Nevertheless, there are still plenty of companies willing to boost their dividends, and you can now buy such companies at bargain prices.

Periodically, a beginning investor reader will ask how to decide on which stocks to purchase. The easy answer is that beginning investors have no business investing in individual stocks. Beginning investors should be investing in mutual funds containing diverse offerings that decrease risk. Or, beginning investors should invest in exchange traded funds, ETFs, which are collections of stocks around a central investment goal or risk factor, but unlike mutual funds, ETFs trade on stock exchanges and are fully liquid.

All that being said, investors who want to purchase individual stocks in their own name, would do well to investigate publicly traded companies that offer dividend reinvestment plans, or DRIPs.

DRIPS are an extension of employee stock plans that larger companies have long offered their employees, but are now also open to the investing public.

HOW TO FIND A DRIP PLAN: