Author Archive: Brett Owens

Let’s talk income investments that are usually reserved for rich folks: deal-making private-equity (PE) funds!

Usually there’s a sizable fee to get into PE. Unless you know the secret knock at the back-door entrance, which is more our style anyway.

I’m talking about yields from 7% all the way up to 11%. With a cover charge as low as $15!

These business development companies (BDCs) exist thanks to a perfectly legal loophole that lets anyone with an IRA or brokerage account tap into not just one or two private-market companies, but dozens at a time. Instead of shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to hit a PE fund’s minimum buy-in, this access typically starts at about $15 to $20 per share.… Read more

Last week in this column, I said it was time to buy. Today, we’ll clarify that timeline.

Buy and hold forever? Nah. Not now. Maybe never again!

To everyone that shook their head at this careful contrarian last week, thinking there is too much uncertainty in the world, well, I agree with you. The “threatdown” is real—which is why I’m not interested in holding names until the end of time.

We have conflict in the Middle East, a still-hawkish Federal Reserve, spiraling government debt and stubborn inflation. The news isn’t pretty.

That said, precarious markets create short-term and medium-term opportunity.… Read more

Our favorite tech-sector dividend growers are finally on sale—and our time to “lock in” these fast-growing payouts has arrived.

Our Tech Buying Opportunity: Fully Booted Up

These days, fear surrounds us, and we contrarian income seekers know that times of fear are when we go shopping. That goes double for tech stocks, which tumble when the 10-year rises (and vice versa).

Take last year, when the rate on the “long bond” spiked and high-flying techs, shown in purple below by the performance of the benchmark Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) hit the deck:

10-Year Tells Us When to Buy—and Sell—Top Tech Divs

Sure, the AI hype has fueled a nice rebound this year, but this latest spike in the 10-year has given us a nice—and rare—second chance to buy in, washing out many of our faves.… Read more

The time to panic is behind us. And perhaps (way) ahead of us.

This is the time to buy, my fellow contrarian. Let’s grab bargains for maximum profits and payouts while they are still available!

Have $50,000 to invest right now? Here’s how to “put it to work” for maximum upside and profits.

• Buy a nice dividend payer. Receive income…plus joy when these stocks pop!
• Be careful not to fall in love with your new money maker. There will be a time to sell and book gains. Probably in January.

If we can keep our cool and not marry ourselves to our new holdings, we’re looking at double-digit gains in a few months.… Read more

The 10-year Treasury yield’s latest journey to the stars is setting up a terrific opportunity for us to “lock in” historically high dividend yields—and upside, too.

The time to make our move is now. Here’s why: the surging yield on the “long bond” has hit stocks—especially dividend stocks—hard. But this surge is completely unsustainable.

Look, over the last few weeks, I’ve been saying the 10-year would bump its head on the “4.3% ceiling” and retreat. The fact that it’s blown through that ceiling only means its coming fall will be that much harder—and our favorite dividend stocks will rip that much higher in response!… Read more

The safest dividend is usually the one that was just raised. Recession or no landing, bull or bear, these payers don’t care.

And neither should their shareholders because these stocks are growing their payouts between 33% and 100% per year. Per year!

Here’s why we have safety in growth. Let’s consider Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), a less-than-truckload (LTL) freight shipping specialist with trucks crawling America’s interstates.

While transportation is a cyclical business, ODFL is a pinnacle of stability, delivering 30% annual profit growth on average over the past seven years. And while the stock hasn’t gone up in a straight line, it has crushed the broader market in that time.… Read more

Please, take that finger off the Sell button.

This is the best buying opportunity since the bank failure panic in March. Vanilla investors are giving away perfectly good dividends.

Let’s grab the bargains.

Why the panic? Well, the 10-year Treasury yield burst through the 4.3% ceiling I’ve been pointing to. This is why stocks sank. All lending and refinancing are based on the 10-year, so a higher rate suggests a slower economy ahead and lower corporate profits.

When the 10-year moonshots like it has over the past year, it breaks financial markets. Bonds drop because they trade opposite rates. Real estate investment trusts (REITs), meanwhile, get hammered for two reasons.… Read more

Were you able to refi your home when rates were low? I hope so.

Don’t tell my wife, but we almost missed the low-rate era. My better half kept asking about refinancing. “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “We will when rates bottom.”

In early 2021, they took off right under my nose. I stare at the bond market all day and nearly missed this thing!

Fortunately, we got a pullback in rates. I called my buddy, a mortgage broker, who dialed me in with a sweet 2.2% rate on our remaining balance. Two point two!

Had we missed that deal, I’d never live it down.… Read more

It’s a great time to be an income investor. We have yields averaging 11.1% staring us in the face.

All we need to do is step past the broader fear, and we can dial in these dynamic dividends. Which oh by the way, pay us monthly.

To do so we’ll look past traditional ETFs in favor of select closed-end funds (CEFs). These vehicles simply pay more than popular funds. Plus, they tend to be more closely managed—a good thing in manic markets like these.

Getting paid every 30 days smooths out our dividend income. This is what a vanilla portfolio of quarterly payers looks like.… Read more

“Do you have cherries?” my buddy Ralph asked over the phone.

It was January 2021. Sports bars here in California were closed, so we naturally turned our backyard into one.

“No,” I replied. And sighed in an honest admission. “Only beer. Lots of beer.”

“No problem. I got ‘em.”

My buddy also had a mini-keg of delicious old-fashioneds. His creations were dangerously delicious. He’d begun making and aging fine adult beverages to pass time in the pandemic.

And the maraschino cherries he brought played no small role in his cocktail’s critical acclaim.

Is it five o’clock yet? Just kidding (mostly). We are talking about maraschinos in a dividend column because we finally have some bond funds worth cherry picking.… Read more