Clearing out the explosive jungle that constitutes part of the garden while enjoying fall, a favourite season in Bermuda, the parallels between the growth of plants and the appreciation and allocation of an investment portfolio seemed natural.Bermuda Cedar: Scraggly and unappealing in perception, envision those circular growth rings tightly packed on its trunk. Cedar almost never needs trimming; it just quietly flourishes, producing consistent, steady, reliable incremental appreciation. These trees will endure forever, it seems, and with each passing year, the wood derived from them becomes ever more valuable to the owner, just like high grade Dow Index investment stocks.White Cedar: Majestic in a million glossy leafy beauties, not really a cedar at all, but perhaps distant cousins, these trees bend in the wind, but have solid deep roots. They are reliable for increasing height and width at about three feet a year. Generous in spirit, every spring this magnificent tree showers off a dazzling array of dainty pale pink tinged flowers. The tree moves with prevailing sea breeze, the baby swing under its powerful branches sways, the blossoms detach and sink languidly to the ground. Witnessing an early morning sunrise, the tree appears to be surrounded by pink snow. Even Fabian tried but only managed to provide this gorgeous specimen with a haircut. The characteristics of blue chip stocks, paying wonderful dividends from time to time, retrenching but almost always forging ahead, is analogous here.Mexican Pepper: Considered a nuisance tree, prolific, prodigious, increasing daily it seems by tens of feet a year. Most want to be rid of this pest, but don’t at the severe detriment to the native bee population. Mexican peppers are survivors, thriving under almost any circumstances; cut them down and they replace themselves easily they are the small cap volatile stocks of the 21st century. They will voraciously and victoriously engulf other plants, given enough time.Raking through the decaying leaves, the top half of a still-Tonka yellow metal backhoe emerges, its jaws permanently rusted on open. Purchased for a boy many years before, its usefulness for picking up stones to build play roads has passed.Treasured memories drift hazily by. They moved reluctantly to the new house when he was three. He didn’t want to go - the real inducement came from the looming presence of a large Caterpillar dealership. Picture more than one hundred monumental pieces of construction vehicles right next door to their rural acreage.This was a very, very profitable business. Operating 24 hours a day, supplying the needs of the US Northeast corridor, on black-dead quiet country nights, the massive haulers engaged in perpetual roulette delivering these metal giants.Every friend of the boy’s eventually made their way over to play on these incredible machines. Sitting silently like immobile guardians, they observed the fun imagining driving and owning your own dump truck - just like Bob the Builder.Every contractor, too, coveted Caterpillar iron. At a cost of $100,000 plus each, it was a sign of success to own this metal, and the first sign of bankruptcy later when the machines were repossessed.Construction worldwide is notorious for boom and bust cycles. Last week, the United State construction industry reported new residential housing starts increased 15 percent and are at the highest since July 2008.Caterpillar is a manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company is also a services provider through Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation (Cat Financial), Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services, Caterpillar Logistics Inc. (Cat Logistics) and Progress Rail Services Corporation (Progress Rail).Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) with an average market value of $43 in 2008, the stock has risen to $86 as of late last week. It pays a modest annual dividend yield of 2.5 percent and is a weighted component of the Dow Jones Industrial average, and other exchanges. With the renewed optimism in the construction industry, this company might be a consideration for a position for your investment portfolio. It may already be a component of your pension investment allocation. Do your homework, too don’t take my work for it.With nostalgia and sadness, they finally let go of those wonderful mechanical toys of childhood - their infrastructure so eroded by the salt air and time that they crumbled at the touch. The boy who loved and owned them, is grown and gone on to have children of his own who have, in their turn, played with them, too.The new plastic Tonkas, their dump truck yellow colours brighter than ever, won’t last as long as steel in Bermuda’s decimating environment. Caterpillar, however, will continue to outlast them all a giant in a gigantic global industry.Martha Harris Myron CPA PFS CFP(USA) TEP at Patterson Partners Ltd provides integrated cross-border tax, estate, investment advisory and related strategic planning services in Bermuda. She is a member of the American Citizens Abroad Professional Tax Advisory Council. www.americansabroad.org For additional information, mmyron@patterson-partners.com or call 296 3528 http://www.patterson-partners.comThe author does not own or sell Caterpillar stock. This article is for general educational purposes only and is not intended as specific individual tax, investment, or retirement advice, and cannot be relied upon for any personal financial planning purposes.