Blue-chip bargains:

NEW YORK -- The winter doldrums bring out sales for so many out-of-season items -- swimwear, lawn mowers, and of course Christmas decorations. But this year's best winter sale might be on blue-chip stocks. Once you factor in the dividends these stocks pay, they just might be the smartest purchases of all.

1. General Electric

GE has paid a quarterly dividend for over one hundred years, and is selling for an all-time low. At around $11 a share, their dividend amounts to an almost 10% annual return on your investment. Stung by their exposure to the financial services end of their business, GE is now focusing on the parts of the business that manufacture tangibles like jet engines, electricity-producing gas turbines, wind-power components, and equipment used in gas and oil production. Warren Buffett put his money on the table ($3 billion of it, anyway) when he invested in GE last spring. That's pretty good company, don't you think?

2. Wal-Mart

Lee Scott, the president and chief executive of Wal-Mart, recently acknowledged that it's an "interesting" time in retail. But Scott said he believed they had the best management team in place, "possibly ever." Quoting Buffett's philosophy that the best businesses are like a castle surrounded by a moat, Scott assured investors that at Wal-Mart they are now focusing on widening their moat -- their competitive advantages as a discounter -- to stay ahead of the competition.

3. Procter & Gamble

An American icon that consistently reinvents itself, P&G
was known in the 1960s largely for cleaning products like Tide and Cheer, and food products like Jif peanut butter and Duncan Hines cake mixes. They still sell the detergents, but now P&G derives income from a more diverse range of goods -- from the Olay cosmetics brand to Gillette razors -- that you can find pretty much everywhere. And P&G is also spreading into Mr. Clean car washes and Tide dry cleaners, so that's an even larger net it's casting.

On the financial side, P&G stock is selling at a 52-week low. Last month, Chief Executive A.G. Lafley warned that P&G is "recession-resistant, but not recession-proof," but this company has always emerged strong from lean times.

4. iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Exchange Traded Fund

If you don't like individual stocks, this blue-chip fund invests in an assortment of high-yielding stocks. Its holdings are mostly in energy, like Chevron, utilities like Entergy, and select financial services stocks like PNC Financial Services. These three stocks are among their top 10 holdings.
On sale means on sale: This fund once sold for over $64 last year, and it's now down to $34. That's a big markdown for a blue-chip fund with no single stock taking up more than 2% of its portfolio. And it's a solid dividend play, returning 5.85% at the current price. Yes, dividends are at risk these days, but the amount of diversification within this fund means you don't have as much to worry about.

Buy a company, not more stuff

If you have some extra cash, instead of buying stuff, take 15 minutes to think about buying the company. It may not help the American economy as much, but it might help your economy a lot more. And if you want to practice, you can give these stocks a dry run at WeSeed.com, where you can learn about investing for free before doing it in the real world, and hear what others have to say about these very companies.

As always: Do your homework before you buy.