Author Archive: Brett Owens

$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.

2026 is shaping up to be the best year for bond investors in many years. Washington wants rates down, housing up and borrowing cheap again.

This wish list is wildly bullish for bonds.

Fed Chair Jay Powell has delivered two rate cuts to end the year, with more to follow. Whether or not Powell personally delivers them doesn’t matter to us. Powell is on his way out. But the Fed show will go on, with a ringmaster ready to roll.

President Trump has confirmed his shortlist for the next Fed Chair is down to “The Two Kevins”: Kevin Hassett and Kevin Warsh.… Read more

Today I have a sweet dividend “double shot” for you: The first? A 2.8% payout set to grow thanks to AI—and take the stock price up with it.

The second gives you high payouts now, in the form of a monthly-paid 7.8% divvie that also looks set to head higher.

Both of these tickers are cheap. In fact, they (and the sector they’re in) could very well be the last bargains on the board as the bull runs into its fourth (!) year.

Pharma Goes From “Dead Money” to the Next AI Winner 

These two dividend plays are on sale because they’re often lumped in with drug stocks—a sector that’s lagged for years.… Read more

Covered-call strategies can be an income investors’ best friend. Whether the broader stock market goes up, down or merely grinds sideways, selling covered calls pays.

Fortunately, we can buy covered-call funds that do the heavy lifting (“call writing”) for us. These funds yield 7%, 12% and yes even 89%. We simply buy them and collect the dividends.

But are all covered-call funds good buys? Of course not. We’ll sort through a popular four-pack in a moment. First, let’s discuss what covered calls are and how they generate income.

Degenerate traders love buying call options to make big bets on stocks.… Read more

Is your portfolio on track to yield 26% in 2026?

If not, why not?

Of course, most stocks and funds don’t pay 26% on their own. But it’s a quick fix to get many of them to.

This makes a big difference to our retirement goals: a 26% return on a million-dollar portfolio is $260,000 in cash flow per year! Without tapping the principal.

Or $130,000 in cash flow on $500K. You get the idea. With 26% coming in, it’s a lot easier to retire.

How can we boost our investment income like this? Let’s take boring ol’ SPY—SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)—as our first example.… Read more

Investors are scared—and that’s setting up a terrific opportunity for us in 8%+ yielding covered-call CEFs.

That’s because volatility fuels the income these stout funds get from their option strategies. And that income flows right into our dividend checks.

I’ve got two 8%+ payers delivering growing “option-boosted” dividends for you below.

And thanks to the market’s relative calm these last few months, these funds are bargains. But the last four years of history say we’re likely headed into a storm. That’s because three of those years started with stocks tripping over their shoelaces.

I think 2026 will make it four out of five.… Read more

Small-cap stocks have finally started to wake up lately, which could be a bullish sign as we head into 2026. Let’s remember that a smaller market capitalization does not necessarily mean a diminutive dividend—today we’ll discuss four small caps that yield between 7.1% and 13.3%.

It’s been a “lost decade” for small caps, which have lagged their larger brethren. 2020’s COVID reopening rally in small caps was intense but short-lived—rising interest rates, renewed interest in safer mega-cap stocks after two bear markets in three years, and a rush into predominantly large-cap AI stocks have left small caps on the outs going into this year.… Read more