Today marks the start of the earnings reports that really matter --the bank stocks. This morning we heard from two of the biggest.

Wells Fargo (WFC) and JP Morgan (JPM) reported their results for the first quarter, both beating expectations, albeit with the ever present "noise" familiar to shareholders of big banks.

Conventional wisdom says that everything changes once a company goes public. Instead of helming your own ship, you now have to kowtow to the voracious Wall Street masters, ever hunting for bigger and better quarterly earnings. You have to play nice with the press, for fear of bad news leading to a short of your stock.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- With interest rates so low and destined to go up, I'm wary of putting too much money in bond funds. As an alternative, I'm thinking of mutual funds that invest in dividend-paying stocks, particularly ones that consistently raise their dividends. My question: should I count the dividend stock funds as part of my stock allocation or my bond allocation? -- Ron