Author Archive: Brett Owens

Finally, food! The kids had their slices. I had a break in my own conversation. And I was hungry after coaching and refereeing eight periods of second-grade basketball.

I took the opportunity to grab the greasiest slice of Margherita pizza on the tray and folded it like a proper East Coast refugee. And paused.

“Coach Brett?”

“Yeah buddy,” I replied to one of my players, slice still in hand.

“Do you have 40 cents?”

“No, sorry buddy.” I shrugged. And attempted to eat once again.

Then my daughter approached.

“Dad. Do you have 40 cents?”

Forty cents. That was pretty specific.… Read more

Food stocks have been hit hard this year—and we contrarian dividend shoppers can no longer ignore the bargains on offer!

Investors’ overly negative take on these “essential” dividend plays makes zero sense because:

1. They’re partly the result of low fertilizer prices, which can’t last because …
2. The world needs more food: according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, global food demand will soar 70% by 2050, and …
3. Food supply is tight, no thanks to droughts and Putin’s disastrous war (Russia and Ukraine are the world’s No. 3 and No. 10 wheat producers).

The result? Grocery bills that drain our wallets faster than we can fill our carts!… Read more

Real estate is getting thumped, which means real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a bargain once again.

Finally! REIT yields are back to where they ought to be—(land)lording over the vanilla S&P 500:

We contrarians, of course, can do even better than the popular Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ). While 3.5% isn’t bad, it pales in comparison to the 12.7% “headline yield” we’re about to discuss.

Why are REITs cheap again? Simple: The Fed.

As I mentioned months ago, higher interest rates mean not only higher costs of capital for REITs (and all other companies, for that matter), but also more competition for income as bond yields become increasingly competitive.… Read more

These 5.7% and 8.9% dividend payers are ready to rally.

Whether they pop this year or next, we shall see. It’s a matter of when rather than if—which is what we gladly sign up for as income investors.

The broader stock market appears to be on a near-term sugar high. Crypto is going (a bit) crazy and meme stocks (of all things) are back. Count us careful contrarians cautious!

We instead turn our attention to natural gas—a market that has already corrected.

Remember when “natty” prices were supposed to go to the moon this winter? We feared that Europe, without Russian gas imports, would be in for a long cold season.… Read more

Let’s go ahead and grab a slice of AI’s furious growth and get ourselves a nice 6% dividend (paid monthly), too.

Better still, we’re going to get in at an unheard-of 13% discount! Plus we’re going to do it safely—not tying up our cash in profitless tech or miserly blue chips dribbling out paltry 1% to 3% dividends.

Like Buying Microsoft, But With a 6% Dividend (Paid Monthly)

When someone mentions AI, the first stock that that likely pops to mind is Microsoft (MSFT) and its flashy move to integrate the ChatGPT AI into its Bing search engine.

That came straight from the company’s $10-billion investment in OpenAI, ChatGPT’s developer—a move that paid off: Microsoft has its search-engine game back after Bing spent the last decade in the dumpster with ’90s throwbacks like AskJeeves and Yahoo.… Read more

Bull or bear? Who cares when we can collect dividends between 10.1% and 11.8%.

That’s not a typo. The S&P 500 pays 1.7%. The 10-year Treasury yields two points more at 3.7%.

That’s better—but it ain’t 11.8%!

The same million-dollar retirement portfolio can either generate $17,000, $37,000 or $118,000 per year. Tough choice!

And better yet, the double-digit dividends I mentioned aren’t penny stocks. We’re talking about diversified funds, with dozens of holdings, managed by skilled advisors that often have decades of experience at the helm.

How Do You Spell “Massive Income”? C-E-F.

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed CEFs versus ETFs:

“If I can give you just one piece of advice to start 2023, it’s this: do not trust your dividend income to ETFs!”

 
There is another.

–Yoda

The Jedi Master had last week’s 8.4% dividend in mind, no doubt. David Friar’s Nuveen Nasdaq 100 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (QQQX) is an elite 8%+ payer worthy of a discussion.

But yes, Yoda, there is another. A rival ETF, also based on “the Qs”—the Nasdaq 100. The Force must be strong with this one—it yields 12.7%.

Is this for real? Or a Hollywood fairy-tale?

Well, let’s go back to David, QQQX’s manager. His elite 8%+ yield is no joke either. He’s doing something that many of us have dabbled with. He buys tech stocks and sells (“writes”) covered calls on his positions.… Read more

Natural gas prices have been completely washed out—and that’s set up some sweet dividend opportunities for us contrarians to tap into.

(These opportunities aren’t just in gas, by the way: China’s reopening and the Biden administration’s need to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—which it’s been using to keep a lid on oil prices—will also lift the goo. We discussed 3 stocks to play crude’s likely rebound on February 4.)

To get a sense of the opportunity setting up for us here, let’s look ahead to next winter, shall we? It’s tough to see how gas can stay low with a setup like this:

• Russian gas will still be a no-go—leading to another dash to boost European supplies over the summer, especially with the current winter looking like it’ll end on a cold snap, draining off the surplus gas the continent is sitting on now.

Want to know the secret to retiring on dividends alone?

Keep that capital intact.

We invest to generate income. The more we have, the greater our potential payouts. So, losing principal is the cardinal sin.

We want our dividends. And we want our prices intact, or better. (If they grind higher, we don’t argue!)

Stocks that are going “up” are tough to argue with. I know, I know—as contrarians we want to bargain shop. We can’t help ourselves to find a deal.

Well deals are great, but so is momentum—especially when it comes to dividend stocks, especially in a bear market.… Read more

Get ready, my fellow contrarians—QQQ “amateur season” is approaching! If you watch as much March basketball as I do, you’re about to hear this repeated hundreds of times:

 
This quote, my fellow “March Madness” fans, is from a commercial for Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ). Within weeks, it will be played nonstop. The ad features flashy camera angles with average investors “dropping knowledge” about the tech stocks they are proud to own via this ETF.… Read more