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The companies that are the best to invest in are those that deal in tobacco, weapons, alcohol, and gambling.

The reason is simple. Economies move in cycles and have alternating up and down years. During the ebb and flow of an economy, people change their consumption habits depending upon the fluctuations that occur as it impacts their own income outlook.

Some industries, however, produce products that people consume in both good times and bad, and these industries generally are termed "vice industries." Consider the four industries I've already mentioned. When the economy is good, people enjoy relaxing with some tobacco; when the economy is bad, they indulge their habits as a distraction from their worries. Alcohol follows the same pattern as tobacco, which finds people drinking up as they live it up in boom times, and drowning their sorrows in booze when things go bust. Gambling is of course of a similar nature, swinging in cycles from people betting their surplus cash for fun to people desperately hoping to hit their numbers and make up for the gaps in their budgets. Weapons are quite a bit different from the other three industries, but in both good times and bad they are required for personal and national defense - war does not wait for a good economy, nor step aside for one.

There are many companies one can choose from that pertain to these industries: Altria (Philip Morris), Anheuser-Busch, General Dynamics, United Smokeless Tobacco, Diageo PLC, MGM Mirage... the list goes on.

An easy way to invest in these four nearly recession proof industries is to invest in the Vice Fund (symbol: VICEX). This fund is composed of stocks of companies that operate within these four industries.

Companies worth investing in are consistently profitable companies, and consistently profitable companies are those that sell the things that human beings consume constantly in both good times and bad. Regardless of economic fortunes, people will always indulge their vices, so look to those industries for solid investments.

Learn more about this author, Paul E. Zimmerman.
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