Ignore the vanilla mainstream media. Small business mojo is gaining steam. Main Street getting its groove back will directly benefit these two (7.2% and 8.8%) dividends.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index washed out in April alongside the stock market. Despair hit desperation levels not seen since December 2012. But the malaise has quickly given way to positivity.

Small biz sentiment has increased for two straight months and counting. Why the turnaround? Two letters: AI.

Shanell Camp, owner of Shaded by Shanell (an up-and-coming beauty brand) explained her excitement to me about ChatGPT, her “go to” resource for brainstorming, marketing help and more.… Read more

Will the new peace in the Middle East hold? What will happen when the “reciprocal tariff” deadline arrives on July 9?

Truth is, no one knows. But we contrarians DO know this: Shaky times like these are tailor-made for us.

Yes, the S&P 500 has been shrugging off all of this (stocks do climb a wall of worry, after all). That’s true. But it’s also caused a lot of mainstream investors to miss the many strong dividend deals that are still on the board.

Near the top of my list for these “dumpster-dive” payers is the Hershey Co. (HSY).… Read more

I know it’s easy to get discouraged by the lack of bargains (not to mention the pathetic yields) available to us today, after stocks bounced back from the tariff-driven selloff.

But I have good news on this front: We still have plenty of places to hunt for big yields, even in this “pricey” market.

We just have to step a bit beyond mainstream choices—specifically to closed-end funds (CEFs), of which there are about 400 or so on the market. As I write, these funds, which are as easy to invest in as any ETF, yield around 8.7% on average.

But it’s the valuation story (source of the price upside we demand in addition to those big dividends) that’s particularly compelling here—and that side of things often gets overlooked as investors zero in on CEFs’ outsized dividend payouts, many of which are paid monthly.… Read more

“Programmer.”

My wife nailed it as we stepped into the open house, staring into the front room labeled “home office.” Shoes off, respecting the homeowners still living there.

“They’re hoping for a rentback,” explained the realtor. “The couple has to move out of town for work.”

Ah, another casualty of the return-to-office mandate! Back to the Bay Area for these two. They’re far from alone. Major cities—Boston, New York, San Francisco—are shaking off five years of downtown rust, preparing for commuters back four or more days each week.

Even here in Sacramento, I had to battle morning traffic this week for the first time in more than five years.… Read more

“Those are some crazy numbers.”

An old friend had messaged me, and that line caught my attention. As it turned out, he had 36 trillion numbers in mind: the national debt, in other words. That is a pretty striking figure, and it’s fair to ask how the country’s debt could go from a trillion dollars back in 1981 to 36 times that today.

“Very irresponsible, imo,” my friend wrote.

This sounds like a reasonable response, and many people think this way. But the problem here, from an investment perspective, is that most people look at the debt on its own, without considering the many other factors we’re going to delve into today.… Read more

Let’s talk about oil and gold dividends. Whether or not the new peace in the Middle East holds, there are some high-quality dividends worth owning anytime. These generous payers (up to 8%!) provide peace of mind just in case the geopolitical Jenga set gets knocked loose again.

We’ll start with crude, which had rallied to one-year highs. I was originally going to advise not chasing the “Strait of Hormuz” oil rally. Futures indicated (and still do) that lower prices are likely ahead. January 2026 still trades cheaper—suggesting temporary disruption at worst.

Back at home, you’ve probably heard (not least from me, often) that President Trump wants a lower Fed Funds Rate!… Read more

Stocks—especially dividend stocks—have every reason to shoot higher from here. In fact, they have 7 trillion reasons.

That’s how much Americans have parked in money-market funds. But a chunk of that is about to shake loose. When it does, I see it piling into top dividend payers (and growers)—including the three we’ll discuss below.

Investors Wait for the Stock-Market “Bat Signal”

Before we get to that, the chart above is worth a look. Starting last summer, pre-election fears sent investors piling into money-market funds, pushing assets past $7 trillion.

Then something strange happened: They pulled cash out of these funds after the “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced.… Read more

If you invest for long enough, you may hear a skeptic of high-yield investments—such as 8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs)—say something like:

“Sure, you’re getting a lot of income now, but what if that dividend gets cut?”

Today we’re going to answer that with a look at how a dividend cut can actually send a CEF (or any dividend investment, really) on a profitable run. We’ll do it by looking at three CEFs that followed this exact pattern: Cutting dividends and then going on to give investors huge returns for years and years.

These funds show that a dividend cut on its own isn’t reason enough to avoid an investment.… Read more

Let’s talk about energy dividends because, well, you know why. But let’s not chase the headlines.

Let’s focus on energy “toll collectors” that will make money regardless of tomorrow’s geopolitical landscape. Steady cash flows support these 4.2% to 9.5% yields.

This runs counter to the outlook for exploration and production companies, as well as equipment and service providers, which have profits that are tightly bound to the price of energy commodities. These stock prices follow crude oil movements too closely.

Energy infrastructure companies are calmer plays. Companies that own and operate pipelines, processing plants and storage facilities aren’t nearly as reliant on energy prices—they just take a cut whenever oil, natural gas, nat-gas liquids, etc.,… Read more

Few things ease financial worry like knowing you can walk away from work anytime you want.

Closed-end funds (CEFs) give us just that kind of security—and we talk about that a lot in my weekly articles and in my CEF Insider service. With yields of 8%, 9% and more, CEFs generate huge payouts that could let you retire earlier than you think.

It’s such a powerful—and overlooked—way to invest that it’s worth revisiting again today. We’ll color our discussion by looking at how some typical American retirees could retire with CEFs.

And we’re going to work in some real-life numbers, too.… Read more