Author Archive: Brett Owens

Most “high bracket” investors love the idea of tax-free muni bonds. But they aren’t sure where to buy them, and often end up using exchange traded funds (ETFs) as their vehicle of choice.

Bad idea.

Muni ETFs provide a smooth but unfulfilling ride. The popular iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB) for example has rewarded its investors with a drama-free decade. Prescient investors who foresaw the big crash of 2008 and piled into munis saved themselves a year of heartburn and earned $50,000 in Federal tax-free income on every $100,000 they saved from stocks:

MUB is Steady, But Unspectacular

Stocks, as usual, were better over the long run.… Read more

What if I told you there’s a way you can buy your favorite blue chips and get a dividend up to 6 times bigger than what these stocks pay today?

Let’s be honest: with an income stream like that, backed by household names like Pfizer (PFE) and AT&T (T)—more on these two stocks below—you’d leap at the chance, right?

The truth is, you’d be crazy not to.

Well, now you can. And today I’m going to show you exactly how to do it—and 2 quick moves to get you there instantly.

Like Buying Cheap in 2009 … and Knowing What Happens Next

Funny thing is, for a brief, shining moment in the not-so-distant past (early March 2009), many blue chips actually did deliver payouts of 7%, 10% and more.… Read more

Environment, social and governance (ESG) investing. Socially responsible investing (SRI). Sustainable investing. These are some of the biggest investing buzzwords of the past few years, pointing to a movement by investors pushing companies to be more conscious about their impact on issues such as climate change, diversity, human rights and sustainability.

But ESG, SRI and the like are more than just buzzwords. They’re actually the principles behind several hot-performing stocks, as well as some of the more attractive dividend-yielding blue chips on Wall Street. And today, I’ll explain how some of these “do-gooder” stocks actually translate their principles into better profits, bigger share gains and fatter dividends that we can compound into retirement riches.… Read more

Just because you’re a dividend investor doesn’t mean you’re fated to “grind out” income 3% and 4% at a time. With a slight change to your current (dare I say pedestrian?) strategy, you can keep your dividends and enjoy 81% to 437% price upside or more.

These types of life-changing returns are easily achievable within a few years. You just need to employ the “ultimate contrarian dividend strategy” – and buy select born again payouts.

The strategy is two-fold:

1. Find the stocks with rock-bottom sentiment around them, and
2. Only buy them when a cheery outlook is guaranteed.

First, Find Firms Burdened With This “Stigma”

Contrarian investing works because it capitalizes on over-negative sentiment to find value.… Read more

The stock market’s up, so yields are down. And while there are still some generous payers available, be careful – some are paper tigers that will probably suffer this year.

That’s exactly the danger that’s facing four enticing high-yielders (yielding up to 20%!) that I’ll discuss with you shortly.

Since stock prices generally follow their payouts higher, it’s important to remember the opposite also happens. When dividends get cut, shares get crushed.

I’ve warned readers about Frontier Communications (FTR) and its dangerous dividend for years now. Hopefully investors listened to me, because those that didn’t lost “two ways” – they lost their yield and they lost their capital:

The Danger of Dividend Cuts

Frontier’s 2017 dividend cut – as well as its 2018 dividend suspension – are just one cautionary tale.… Read more

Last week, I showed you a smart monthly income strategy that hands you $3,333 a month on a $500k investment—all in dividends alone.

This easy monthly dividend setup works out to an average 8% yield (or $40,000 a year on our $500k) paid out to you every 30 days like clockwork.

I think you’ll agree this is plenty of cash for many people to clock out on. So today we’re going to talk growth.

Because our $3,333-a-month “8% strategy” already crushes Wall Street’s flawed 4% rule. You know the one: it recommends that you draw down 4% of your nest egg a year by selling stocks to supplement your dividend income.… Read more

If you feel trapped “grinding out” dividend income with popular 2% and 3% stocks and funds, here’s the three-letter acronym that will fund your retirement:

C-E-F

For whatever reason, closed-end funds don’t have nearly the following – or analyst paperazzi – that dividend-paying stocks boast. This “secret” is one of the last great efficiencies in an otherwise tough-to-beat market.

And we contrarian income hounds will gladly take this edge…

After all, it doesn’t make much sense that we can trade in our “dumb” stocks, ETFs and mutual funds for superior tickers that:

• Yield 6%, 7%, 8% or more,
• Pay their investors every month,
• Often trade at a discount to the assets they each own, and
• Are managed for free (I’ll explain more later) by a top-notch investment manager.

What’s the best way to add the consistent income growth of the Dividend Aristocrats to your portfolio without paying the “royalty premium” of these popular, well-covered stocks?

Buy ‘em while they’re young.

Right now, there are a handful of stocks I want to show you today that are knocking on the door of Dividend Aristocrats membership. We’re talking only one to three years shy of the 25-year benchmark of consecutive annual dividend increases.

That means they still boast more than two decades’ worth of higher payouts, which is plenty of proof that they’ve got bulletproof financials and put shareholders’ interests on a pedestal.… Read more

Looking for high yield investments, packed in a convenient fund wrapper? You’d better look beyond these three popular names.

I’m going to show you how to “cherry pick” their best holdings today. We’ll even discuss some better “clicks to make” so that you can sell these dumb money funds if you hold them, and buy some better value (and higher yields!) instead.

What’s the price of popularity? Well, investors have sunk about $43 billion into three of the ETF world’s biggest, most prominent names. And they have less to show for it than several better-managed but under-the-radar funds.

In fact, given that these aforementioned “dumb funds” are among the biggest players in their three respective asset classes, it’s very likely that you own one if not more of these first-in-name but second-class ETFs.… Read more

“Hey Brett, what do you think of telecom?”

“Well, let’s take Verizon (VZ). It pays a 5% dividend. It’s growing that dividend by about 2% or so per year. So I’d expect the stock to return 7% or so in the years ahead,” I replied.

“What about profitability metrics like return on invested capital (ROIC)? Or margins? Or…?” my investor friend rebutted.

“If it doesn’t flow through to a higher dividend, then it doesn’t really matter.”

I was “grilled” with many thoughtful dividend-related questions while speaking to subscribers and fellow income hounds at Denver’s AAII (American Association of Individual Investors) chapter last week.… Read more