Author Archive: Brett Owens

“Daddy. Can you come play with me in the playroom?” my four-year-old asked.

“Sure. I’ll be right in,” I said. “Once I get done unloading the dishwasher. Would you like to help me unload?”

“No thanks,” my daughter replied. No surprise, but one day I hope to catch her off-guard.

She walked to the playroom. Barely. And reappeared.

“Daddy. You’re taking for ages.”

For ages is the equivalent of forever in our house. I think. Then again, given her level of exasperation, she could be telling me I’m taking longer than forever.

She’d make a good bond trader. With long rates rising every day, few income investors want to hold any bonds for any amount of time.… Read more

The last time the Federal Reserve tried to taper its money-printing ways, the S&P 500 dropped 20% in 11 weeks.

I’m not sure if the sequel is going to be any kinder to “America’s ticker,” the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). It’s time to prepare.

The best time to sell speculative, profitless positions was last week. The second-best time is probably now, with Jay Powell set to stop his bond buying and start raising rates in the next couple of months.

I know many dividend investors are feeling smug, and rightly so. We made a bunch of money from Powell’s printing, and now our dividend darlings appear set to attract “basic” investors from the land of crypto and tech.… Read more

It’s no surprise to us calculated contrarians—2022 is already looking like a volatile train wreck. With the Federal Reserve shutting off its money printer, cash is flowing away from the most speculative part of the stock market for the first time since early 2020.

Declines are likely to produce winners and losers. While profitless stocks are probably toast, dividend growers are likely to turn into darlings.

This is shaping up to be the year of the “dividend magnet.” If you don’t know what this is, here’s a crash course on the safest, surest way to make money from stocks in the months ahead.… Read more

Well, that escalated quickly.

We contrarians have been ready for rising interest rates—and long-term rates have indeed begun the year with a moonshot.

The Federal Reserve has been a big buyer of US bonds since the spring of 2020. If it weren’t for this “whale” buying $80 billion in bonds per month, long rates would likely be higher already.

How much higher is anyone’s guess. But now that the Fed is “tapering” its monthly purchases from $80 billion all the way to zero, everyone is rushing to place bets. And income investors are speculating that a fair rate for the 10-year is higher than here.… Read more

I was waiting in line at the California DMV recently, idly flipping through my phone, when I ran across this headline:

There Are More 401(k) and IRA Millionaires Than Ever …

Fidelity Investments—apparently happy to share its customers’ financial info anonymously—says it has more than 750,000 seven-figure 401(k) and IRA accounts.

A chunk of money is great, especially when we can leave it untouched and let it grow. That was no doubt the “secret” of 99%+ of these retirement millionaires. They socked away money for decades and rode the market higher. (They didn’t chase the crypto du jour!)

Soon it will be time to convert the pile of cash into cash flow that can pay the bills.… Read more

Once upon a time, it was hard to find an income strategy much better than the idiot-proof “Dogs of the Dow.”

And hey, in this wild market in which the S&P can drop 2% in a couple of hours, this sounds pretty good. Let’s buy some blue chips and earn 3x more income than the broader market.

Which Dogs are paying the biggest dividends for 2022? As a group these battleship businesses are paying 3.8% versus just 1.2% for the broader market. We’ll review them in a moment. First, the Dogs of the Dow rules:

• Rule 1: After the final trading day of the year, identify the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow.

The 2022 edition of the stock market is probably going to be a mess. With the Federal Reserve pausing its money printing, we are likely to see “flights to safety” that will feature—believe it or not—our favorite dividend stocks.

Yes, it’s all fun and games in the tech-and-crypto casino when the Fed is pumping billions into the bond market every month. Its purchases, of course, were funded by money that the Fed itself printed out of thin air. This capital flowed into speculative assets like the NASDAQ in 2020 and coins with dog faces in 2021.

The trendy stocks of 2022 are likely to be our style.… Read more

The stock market is probably going to be a mess this year. With the Federal Reserve taking away the punch bowl it’s been providing since March 2020, investors are likely to start selling once they begin sobering up.

This will likely be bad for speculations, such as profitless tech stocks and crypto coins featuring dog breeds. But it could be great for the dividend stocks we love, as “flights to safety” will naturally find refuge in our reliable payers.

We’ve already enjoyed some great dividend-powered profits from 2020 and 2021. And there’s no reason for us to cash in these profits just yet.… Read more

If you’re as nervous about the 2022 financial scene as I am, we should take this holiday week to review 22 reliable dividends. I’m talking about generous payers that are prepared for any market, bull or bear.

In a market where liquidity is drying up fast, sign me up for safe dividends plus additional profits. The asset price “fuel” that our Federal Reserve has provided since March 2020 is disappearing. Fed Chairman Jay Powell is being forced by inflation numbers to reduce the massive cash the Fed has been providing the financial markets.

So, let’s talk about 22 stocks with sizable and stable dividends averaging 6.8% that can double, triple, maybe even quadruple your portfolio yield overnight.… Read more

If you’re as nervous about the 2022 edition of the stock market as I am, we should take this holiday week to review reliable REIT dividends.

REITs (real estate investment trusts) are stocks that dish 90% of their profits as payouts. This makes them ideal income plays for retirees. Rather than buying shares and “hoping” they’ll go up, we can lock in quarterly (or even monthly!) dividends—real cold cash!—with REITs.

For example, my favorite REIT for 2022 yields 4.9%. This equates to $4,900 per year on a $100K position, a great start to the year. Plus, we have the opportunity for price gains—for a total return of 10% or so.… Read more