Author Archive: Brett Owens

The crowd is still way too worried about interest rates—and their fear is handing us a shot at two stout monthly dividends (yielding up to 11.9%) on the cheap.

We can thank new Fed chair Kevin Warsh for ginning up the panic here. Because he was appointed by President Trump, the suits expected Warsh to push for lower rates right off the hop. Instead, the new Fed chief has gone full Dirty Harry on inflation.

Investors are buying it. But they’re already on the wrong side of the story.

Oil has plunged to around $68 a barrel. And the job numbers for June, out last week, were soft, with the number of new gigs around half of what it was expected to be.… Read more

Wall Street analysts have one job: predict where companies’ earnings are going in the coming quarter. Sounds simple enough, except said suits aren’t so good at it!

For the most recent earnings season, these forecasting fruit flies buzzed around modeling 12% earnings growth for the quarter. The S&P 500’s companies showed 27% profit growth—more than double what the “experts” predicted in their spreadsheets. They were way off.

So what does it mean when earnings come in at more than double the forecast? It means these companies have plenty of room—and reason—to hand more of that cash back to us. And that matters because over the long run stock prices follow their dividends.… Read more

Happy anniversary to my friends Charlie and Ginny, who were fired by their lame financial advisor this time last year.

Why? And, more importantly, how are they doing one year later? Let’s discuss.

Our friends have the same goal as retirees like us: to put the pile of money we saved our entire lives to work for us in retirement. Then, use said pile to provide income, so we don’t have to worry about the pile, the market, the news, and the headlines.

That is where the couple “went wrong,” according to the person they paid to give them “advice!”

Their transgression?… Read more

Sell in May? Ha! Try “buy in July.”

Truth is, summer is the best time to troll for dividend deals—especially July. We’re going to “back up the truck” on two tickers in a sec.

Why July?

Because it’s the strongest month of the year for stocks, according to a 2024 report from the Carson Group, a financial-advisory firm. Here’s the upshot: Over the 20 years leading up to July 2024, the S&P 500 rose 2.3% on average.

And that’s just the average. Many years saw bigger gains than that.

This is our short-term play.

On the horizon, we’ve got the midterms.… Read more

We should avoid REITs right now because the Fed talks tough about raising rates.

Or we should buy REITs right now because the Fed’s worries are overblown.

Which is true? Well, it depends.

Let’s talk about our beloved real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which we favor as retirement-focused investors. REITs must dish most of their profits to us as dividends. A congressional act created them decades ago, and it requires them to send us at least 90% of their taxable income as payouts, in exchange for tax advantages.

Now the lazy Wall Street maxim holds that REITs trade opposite interest rates.… Read more

The Supreme Court just ruled on our closed-end funds (CEFs).

Wait. What? Our beloved dividend machines, the lightly driven passenger payout cars we ride to comfy retirements? Our CEFs?

Yes, the third branch of the US government just spent its time deliberating a legal question about our humble, underfollowed CEFs. Why do the courts care about our underowned and unappreciated funds?

We love ‘em because they’re obscure. Underfollowed. And, best of all, inefficient.

Wall Street whales can’t jump into our profitable CEF pond. Most of these funds are $2 billion in market cap or less. If a whale cannonballed in, the entire sector would pop and the value would instantly disappear.… Read more

New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s hawkish debut has given us a “3-stage” plan for 12% dividends now—and strong gains later.

Here’s how I see that playing out, plus two tickers we can use to grab that reliable double-digit income stream.

3 Reasons Why My Falling-Rate Call Still Stands

First up, I haven’t budged on my call for lower rates. But these things rarely happen in a straight line. In fact, had the Iran conflict not occurred, we’d almost certainly be talking about rate cuts today. 

But oil prices are falling as I write this, and the International Energy Agency just predicted a supply glut next year.… Read more

Let’s talk about big dividend payers that are seeing strong buying from insiders.

Yes, we’re talking about the big boss slapping down their own money for shares nobody is forcing them to buy—shares they may already have plenty of.

Why do we like buying as a signal? Insiders can sell for a variety of reasons:

• A new divorce
• A new boat
• A higher burn rate
• Kids off to college

There are many reasons an insider may sell for the cash. But there’s only one reason they buy: they believe the shares are going up.

Today, we have stock indices near all-time highs.… Read more

I was happily sipping my morning coffee on the couch. Quietly…’til now.

Here marched my eight-year-old, straight at me with a bone to pick.

“Dad, MarkRober said the cars can’t really drive themselves. They drive into walls! So if you get a car that drives itself, it’s going to drive you right into a wall.”

She paused and glared at me while she reached for her conclusion.

“Is that what you want, Dad?”

MarkRober’s real name is Mark Rober. He’s a YouTube guy who preaches science to kids. (Note: Preach isn’t quite teach.) My daughter pronounces his name as one when she recites his gospel.… Read more

Once again, the mainstream crowd is wrong—this time on real estate. And they’re wrong for the same reason they always are: They’re looking at the wrong numbers.

We’re fine with that. We saw it coming.

And we’re ready to profit through an overlooked dividend grower that throws off $14 billion in yearly cash flow. It hands much of that to us as share buybacks and a dividend that’s jumped 11% annualized in the last five years.

We haven’t seen an opportunity like this since 2021. Back then, pandemic restrictions kicked off a home-renovation bonanza. Another one is getting started now.

Welcome to “Home Reno Boom 2.0”

Today, six years after COVID forced me to turn my patio into Puerto Backyarda (complete with a “misting fan” from Home Depot—hint!),… Read more