Can you hear me now, income investors? Verizon (VZ) wants to know.

It’s been a roller-coaster October for the telecom. Given its always-high yield, I know our dividend fans are often considering Verizon, asking, “Is it a good buy now?”

Well, its price is down and profits are up. So that’s a promising start!

Why the bargain though? (Or as my kids ask me when they watch commercials: Daddy, what’s the catch?)

On October 8, Elon Musk made a move! Potential competitor SpaceX (SPCX) agreed to buy nationwide spectrum in a move that would bring Musk into the telecom world.… Read more

The midterms are here—and we contrarians are voting for 13.5% dividends.

The payout we’re going to discuss today isn’t just well into double digits—it also has a history of rolling out, like clockwork, through all sorts of political mayhem.

It’s the ultimate “Alka-Seltzer” divvie for election-season heartburn. And it’s exactly what we need now.

This 13.5% dividend comes from a closed-end fund (CEF) called the DoubleLine Income Solutions Fund (DSL). It’s a holding of my Contrarian Income Report service that recently marked its 10th year in our portfolio.

DSL just hit another milestone, too: It “paid back” our buy price in dividends alone.… Read more

The world’s biggest asset manager says now is the time for us to grab “generational high yields.”

I believe them. And today we’re going to follow their advice.

The setup is clear: Even though high bond yields have caused a lot of worry, especially around heavily indebted AI firms, these worries (as they often do) bring opportunity.

That opportunity is this: Yes, yields on corporate bonds have soared, especially in the more speculative corner of the market, where heavily indebted AI players like CoreWeave (CRWV) operate.

But in other corners of the bond market, something interesting is happening: Yields are hitting highs not seen in 18 years, while default risk remains low.… Read more

Income investors are attracted to low-beta stocks like moths to a flame. Low beta has a reputation for being low drama, but is it really?

Technically, beta measures how closely a stock moves with the market. Intuitively, we’re looking for low-beta stocks because we think that they’ll do better during a market pullback.

Here’s a low-beta dog—and one of today’s picks: NNN REIT (NNN). Its beta over the last year is near zero, but the stock has returned just 5.4% over the last 12 months, versus 14.4% for the S&P 500. And from its July high to mid-October, NNN fell 14%.… Read more

This market is in a weird place: rising but scared.

Disconnects like these are exactly what make our contrarian income strategy work.

Here’s the state of play: Stocks, of course, have risen this year, with the S&P 500 up around 12%. That’s because, even though investors are dour, enough of them see that corporate America is in a “profit boom”: According to the latest numbers from FactSet, S&P 500 companies are set to report profit growth of 33.1% for all of 2026, on 12.8% revenue gains.

These are huge numbers, and they fully justify this year’s gains.

But if you’ve been watching the movements of the overall market (and I’m guessing you probably have), you’ll have noted that it’s been mostly grinding sideways since around mid-summer, with occasional sharp moves—some of them major—up and down.… Read more

Social Security recipient? You’re set to receive a 3.6% raise in January.

How about your dividend portfolio? Well, it depends on your positions! So let’s talk about the stocks and funds that will give us that magical COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) we love to sip versus the static divvies that can become a bit stale year after year.

We’re all about the 7% to 8% yields here at Contrarian Outlook. Generous dividends are good! But often these come with fixed paychecks that are, well, fixed.

Year after year we collect the same check. In January, we’ll have some COLA FOMO. Inflation is our hidden nemesis.… Read more

Investors are dumping top dividend growers. And they’re doing it at the worst possible time.

This is the kind of moment we contrarians live for: When investors look at short-term worries and panic—and forget the longer-term (and much rosier!) setup before them.

This is the basis of the old market adage that “Stocks climb a wall of worry.”

They do—and we’re here for it.

I’ve got two dividends for you below: one that’s taken too heavy a beating, and another that’s overlooked but just starting to get on the crowd’s radar. Its surging dividend (up 358% in the last decade) sure helps.… Read more

We’ve got a very nice buy setup in 7%-paying closed-end funds (CEFs) in front of us. Few people realize it.

It stems from the fact that, while stocks have taken a breather after booking strong gains so far this year, many CEFs are lagging more than they should be. The cause? Overdone investor fear around, you guessed it, AI.

That dour mood has set up a particularly interesting dynamic in CEFs holding US stocks:

The chart above, from my CEF Insider service, shows that these funds’ average return based on their market prices (in green) is up about 7.2% so far this year.… Read more

Getting antsy about the midterms? Wondering whether oil will ever come back down? Afraid the AI bubble is going to pop, blowing a dotcom-sized hole into your retirement portfolio?

I’m not. Because I’ve found the best cure for headline risk is a fat income check—preferably one that arrives every month.

The headline risks I mentioned are really starting to eat away at investors big and small. The VIX volatility index just spiked to multimonth highs. Hedge funds have been unloading their tech holdings at the fastest rate in a decade. Even though the major indices are just a percent or two off their highs, breadth has been terrible and small caps are actually in a correction.… Read more

There are hundreds of closed-end funds (CEFs) out there, and almost all of them have an investor they’re perfect for.

I say “almost” because there are a few that are, in my view, not appropriate for any investor. These CEFs are highly speculative and, for the most part, don’t provide a dividend. That flies in the face of a key reason to own CEFs in the first place: high payouts! These funds typically yield around 8%.

We also generally want to be wary of new CEFs with little performance history. When you combine that with a lack of payout focus, you can find yourself taking on some very significant risk.… Read more