Anyone up for a 10.2% payout? One that is powered by profits that should actually rise alongside interest rates?

If so, I’ve got a three-letter acronym for us:

B-D-C.

Business development companies provide debt, equity and other financing to small and midsized companies, effectively acting as banks because banks often don’t want to take on that level of risk. And because they’re primarily investing in companies that aren’t on public markets, BDCs serve as de facto private equity investments—but ones that retail investors like us can get in on!

BDC structures are similar to real estate investment trusts (REITs). Both were created by Congress—REITs in 1960, BDCs in 1980.… Read more

One of the great things about closed-end funds (CEFs) is that there’s one out there we can use to tap just about any trend—and turn it into a nice 7.1%+ dividend payout.

Take the surge in retail we saw last month. Despite the pandemic, Americans are hitting the stores again (with many doing so online):

Retail Sales Surge

In January, retail sales jumped 5.3%, far ahead of economists’ expectations of 1.2% gains. This was helped by a 0.7% sales drop in December, but it’s undoubtedly the result of the latest round of stimulus checks.

Retail ETF Soars, But Its Dividend Leaves Much to Be Desired

That’s great news for retailers because it proves that consumers are spending their COVID aid money instead of hoarding it.… Read more

On Sunday night, our old friend exclaimed to my wife and me: “How have you all been??”

It’d been, well, almost a year since we’d been to her bar. We had plenty to catch up on with our drink-slinging pal as we sipped and snacked. Back on the home front, our babysitter had recently resurfaced and appeared to have bedtime under control. It was nice to have a throwback evening, the type we all took for granted just 12 months ago.

In the interim, many income investors have, likewise, taken low long-term rates for granted. Not we contrarians, of course.… Read more

Stocks or bonds? Why choose when:

1. Stocks pay just 1.5%
2. Bonds pay just 1.3%, yet
3. There are little-known hybrid instruments yielding up to 7.9%!

These vehicles aren’t risky. They just happen to be favorites of Wall Street insiders who don’t want income investors like us crowding their favorite trades.

Unfortunately for them, we are not going to apologize for this article in advance. It’s time for us to discuss how to take the 1.5% yield from the S&P 500, the 1.3% yield from 10-year Treasuries—throw each in the trash—and instead type in the “convertible bond” tickers we’re not supposed to know about.… Read more

You may not know it, but you could have enough money saved to retire right now.

It’s true!

Today we’re going to look at how you can pull a nice $30,000-a-year income stream from your current hoard, even if you’ve saved just $250K. Best of all, you could generate this cash stream without selling a single stock from your portfolio. That could very well be enough for you to clock out, or at least scale back your day job.

Along the way, I’ll also show you how to dodge some of the worst yield traps in dividend-land.

Be Wary of High-Yield Blue Chips

To be honest, I don’t know why anyone would be surprised that this approach is possible.… Read more

The S&P 500 is still levitating, and if you’re like me, you’re starting to feel like this bull run is on borrowed time.

It’s understandable. The economy is just now stumbling to its feet, yet interest rates are already creeping higher. I think you’ll agree that we need higher borrowing costs like we need a hole in the head!

Treasury Rates Bust Through the 1% Barrier

Sure, 1.2% is a historically low number, but bear in mind 1% is an important psychological barrier, and we’re already well beyond that—and once rates broke through it, you can see how quickly they took off.… Read more

With the market scraping all-time highs—and dividend yields scraping historic lows—you’re probably thinking there’s nowhere you can find big, safe dividends with at least some price upside right now.

Well, you’re far from alone. The good news is, there’s still one place where the undervalued dividend payers you crave are common.

Today I’m going to show you exactly where to find these buys, in a sector rife with bargain-priced high dividends yielding all the way up to 12.5%. That’s more than 10X what the average S&P 500 stock pays.

Step 1 of Our Dividend Bargain Hunt: Step Back … Way Back

This gives us a nice opportunity to hone our value-seeking skills, too, by doing one of my favorite things—drilling down into the latest earnings numbers, which is something too few investors do.… Read more

High-yield bonds have never paid less. Which is too bad, because let’s be honest—dividends are the reason we income investors wade in “junk bond” waters in the first place.

Fortunately, by being selective rather than lamestream, we can double our existing high-yield bond dividends. Nothing fancy, either. We sell the unselective ETFs and buy the ones with proven bond investors at the helm.

Before starting, let me make one huge point. It is true that almost all actively managed equity mutual funds aren’t worth the management fees investors pay. But some actively-managed bond funds most definitely are worth it.

The ETFs we would be selling are the two most popular high-yield bond ETFs.… Read more

Today we’re going to discuss the secret to double-digit annual returns every year, forever, with secure dividend stocks.

It’s simple but not easy. Here’s the hint. We must seek out hefty recurring payouts from stocks with dependable recurring revenue!

It’s one of the oldest business models there is, and it’s hands-down the best setup for us dividend investors: customers pay every week, month, year or whatever, giving a company predictable—and ideally growing—profits.

They then send those profits our way as predictable—and growing—payouts! Plus, many of these firms buy back their own shares too. Which, in turn, makes each share we own more valuable on a “per share” basis.… Read more

A wild year like 2020 is a great acid test for closed-end funds (CEFs)—and it can tell us a lot about which of these high-yield plays to pick (and avoid!) as we move deeper into 2021.

A Split Market

If 2020 did anything, it widened the gap between winning and losing sectors of the stock (and closed-end fund) market. It just goes to show how critical it is to pick funds in the right sectors, as well as those with savvy management that can shift with the times.

Technology, of course, boomed last year. At my CEF Insider service, we were well-positioned in tech with the BlackRock Science and Technology Fund (BST), which we added to our portfolio in August 2019.… Read more