Author Archive: Brett Owens

The Dow Jones Industrial Average itself yields modestly, but the Dogs of the Dow 2026 pack more dividend bite. The index’s top payers dish up to 6.8%. Collectively, they provide 3X more yield than the miserly S&P!

We’ll review every one of the Dow’s 10 Dogs (and their dividends) in a moment. First, a refresher on how the “Dogs of the Dow” strategy works:

1. After the final close of 2025, we identify the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
2. The strategy buys all 10 stocks in equal amounts and holds them for the full calendar year.
3. At the end of the year, the stocks are sold.

Wall Street is treating Venezuela like the next “black gold” rush.

Nah—I don’t think so. Let me explain why and share my favorite US-based energy dividends up to 8.4%.

Vanilla investors are piling into the majors like Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX), betting that regime change is a “buy” signal for anyone with a drill bit near Venezuela’s flush Orinoco Belt. But we careful contrarians know better. Energy infrastructure does not simply bounce back overnight. (Fictional TV “landman” Tommy Norris is not taking a plane south to instantly fix production with a few phone calls, hard lines and Michelob Ultras!)… Read more

Ignore the doom-and-gloom “predictions” about 2026. There are plenty of gains—and growing dividends—to be had for us this year.

And if we do see a short-term pullback—possible, as we discussed a few weeks ago—the “smart money” is already setting up for a rebound. We’re going to join them by targeting three “depressed” corners of the market. We’ll get into those (and three tickers) below.

DC Stacks the Deck

Why am I so optimistic? Because, to be frank, the fix is in.

We are entering a year of “administered growth.” The Trump team has made its wishes clear: It wants lower mortgage rates, cheaper borrowing costs and a laissez-faire backdrop for American businesses.… Read more

Most vanilla investors limit their retirement income ideas to the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) advertised on TV.

Don’t do it!

These lame mainstream ETFs tend to yield 1% or 2%. That is only enough income for retirement if we are talking about a $10 million nest egg.

There are better buys beneath the popular surface. And they will fund retirements on far more reasonable savings figures. For example, we’ll discuss funds today that dish dividends of 9%, 10%, even 11%.

This is $55,000 in annual income on a $500k investment. Now we’re talking.

And these funds feature active management. Ironically, they often boast better caretakers than the large ETFs, which are highly automated and contain more marketing sizzle than alpha.… Read more

If you are a serious dividend investor, then you know the answer to this question:

How much dividend income are you going to make in 2026?

In other words, what are your projected dividends next year?

If you don’t know, then you’re not as dedicated to dividends as you thought. Disappointing, but fixable with Income Calendar.

And please, don’t tell me I’m being hard on you. If that’s the way you feel, then this is the tough love that you need. Your wakeup call for 2026.

It’s time to treat your dividend investing like a business. Because it is.… Read more

Here’s one thing I can say for sure about 2026: This year, we’ll be grateful we’re NOT sitting on “America’s ticker”—my name for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY).

I call SPY that because pretty well everyone owns it. But its 1% yield makes it more likely that holders will be forced to sell low in the next pullback, if they’re leaning on it to pay the bills.

Not us! We’ll be pocketing the 8%+ cash payouts from the portfolio of my Contrarian Income Report service. So while SPY holders face the next pullback with dread, we’ll be chugging along with our usual “dividends and chill” approach.… Read more

$500K can be enough money to retire on. Even as early as age 50!

The trick is to convert the pile of cash into cash flow that can pay the bills. I’m talking about $41,869.76 per year in dividend income on that nest egg, thanks to 8%+ average yields.

These are passive payouts that show up every quarter or, in many cases, every month.

Meanwhile, we keep that $500K nest egg intact. Or, better yet, grind that principal higher steadily and safely.

Got more in your retirement account? Cool—more monthly dividend income for you!

We’ll talk specific stocks, funds and yields in a moment.… Read more

Washington has a debt problem going into 2026. To put it mildly.

Policymakers are desperate to boost demand for US Treasuries. Higher Treasury prices mean lower Treasury yields. Lower yields translate to reduced interest payments for Uncle Sam on his huge federal debt pile.

The interest payments are what policymakers care about. The total debt is mind-blowing and will never be paid down. The interest, on the other hand, is an annual budget item.

How to reduce the interest via lower bond yields? Leave it to the Washington suits, who “did their thing” with the bills coming increasingly due. They engineered new demand for their government IOUs.… Read more

There’s one 68% (!) paying fund out there that will give us a lump of coal this Christmas, if we’re not careful enough to avoid it.

I’m talking about the YieldMax Ultra Income Strategy ETF (ULTY), which we last discussed in September. Its 68% payout is so ridiculous that you could be forgiven for wondering if I missed a period between the 6 and the 8.

It’s easy to see how one could fall for a payout like that. As 2025 wraps up, we’re looking at a third straight year of double-digit gains for the S&P 500. Nothing breeds complacency like a levitating stock market!… Read more

The manic market has been dumping business development companies (BDCs) left and right. Let’s talk about a seven-stock BDC portfolio (yielding 13.5%!) that is poised to bounce back when sanity returns.

BDCs, which lend money to small businesses, are on the “outs” with the Wall Street suits after countless soft jobs reports. The spreadsheet jockeys fret about an unemployment-induced economic slowdown and miss the real story: small businesses are making more money than ever thanks to AI.

Here is what’s actually happening in the Main Street economy:

• Employers—especially nimble small business owners—are implementing AI to streamline and even run their operations.