Author Archive: Brett Owens

Shall we turn 2023 into a bounce back year for our retirement portfolios?

How about we shoot for, say, 23% total returns?

The surest way to do it is by employing a technique I call the dividend magnet.

It’s safe. Reliable. And works beautifully on the back side of a bear market.

I recently gave a guest lecture for a finance class at California State University, Sacramento. One of the students, to put it lightly, was excited to make money in stocks.

His hand went up from the back of the classroom. (Nobody sits in the front rows. Some things never change!)… Read more

Retirement is simple (we stop working). But it’s not necessarily easy (build up a passive income stream that replaces our previous wages).

Retiring on dividends is my jam. Payouts that arrive every quarter—or better yet, every month—are about as passive as it gets. “Mailbox” money.

Which is ideal. We’re not trying to work here, people! We’re crafting an income stream so that we needn’t answer to anyone else.

When our payouts—plus social security and any pension payments (remember those?)—surpass our expenses, we’re there. See ya, Corporate America!

And remember, we employ a “No Withdrawal” Portfolio. We live on dividends alone, which helps us keep our capital intact.… Read more

Hands up if you’ve been caught out by a snap dividend cut. Then you know the sickening feeling as investors dump the stock, tanking its price on the way out.

The result? A shriveled income stream and a crushed share price.

It’s a story I fear we’re going to hear a lot in 2023, with rising rates hitting stocks now, and a recession on the horizon. Folks who win will be those who know when to swing into—and out of—strong payers while shunning feeble dividends set to crumble.

To help you protect yourself, I’ve combed the market for dividends that could be on the chopping block.… Read more

Looking for the Dogs of the Dow, 2023 edition? You came to the right place.

We’ll explore these 10 blue-chip dividend bargains in a moment. Collectively, they are yielding 4.5%! But first, a quick recap of the strategy and homage to its 2022 “mini miracle.”

Last year was a dumpster fire for most mainstream investors. The market-at-large dropped 18%. “Safe” bond funds shed 25%, 30% or more. Yikes.

But the dogs ran. Not only did they outpace the market, but they delivered positive gains!

Who were these income greyhounds? And what’s the lineup for ’23? First, a refresher on this simple three-step strategy:

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

It’s rare to see two bad years in a row. I have a hunch that 2023 may rhyme with 2009. Bear markets don’t usually last longer than a year. A spectacular shakeout early in the year could set the stage for a steady grind higher later on.

That said, we contrarians don’t buy hunches. Until we see an edge, we’ll remain cautious—and follow these rules:

2023 Rule #1: Don’t fight the Fed. Print this rule out and tape it next to your computer. Or the backside of your phone. Or whatever device you use to make trades.

As long as the Federal Reserve is tightening, the obvious path for all stock and bond prices is down.… Read more

I heard the same question from readers all through 2022: when will we back up the truck and start buying again?

Your dividend strategist sympathizes. We “pivoted” early, starting back in late 2021, selling early and often in my Contrarian Income Report and Hidden Yields dividend-investing services.

Heck, we coined the term “pivot” long before the press did! And while Wall Street has been betting on a rebound all year, the truth is, they’ve been wrong, wrong and wrong again. 

Now 2023 is here and we’re sitting on a big pile of cash. Of course, cash doesn’t pay dividends. But our mattresses are still outperforming 90% of investors out there!… Read more

A terrible 2022 is our income treat. There’s never been a better time to retire on dividends than right now.

Today we’re going to spotlight three diversified dividend funds that yield 8% on average. That’s right, put $500K into these tickers and we’re looking at $40,000 per year in payouts.

Or $80,000 on a million. You get the idea. This is what I call a secure 8% “No Withdrawal” Portfolio where we get to retire on dividend income alone, without ever touching our capital. (The strategy has become so popular that Tom Jacobs and I wrote a book on it!)… Read more

Today I’m going to show you a two-part dividend-growth strategy that actually made money for one group of investors in the disastrous year that was 2008.

Before we get into the specifics on this technique and an example stock, I want to level with you: I do believe that stocks are likely to head lower in the coming weeks.

That said, if we look one year out from today, I like our chances. But we’re going to give ourselves an added level of security by purchasing stocks with these two traits:

1. Strong—and better yet accelerating—dividend growth, because a rising payout is the No.

Ten percent dividends are no joke.

We’re talking $50,000 in annual payout income on $500K. Or $100,000 in yearly dividends on a million dollars.

This is serious cash flow. And best of all, we’re talking yields—which means, if we buy right, we can sit tight, collect these payouts and keep our nest egg intact.

Generous yields give us a big advantage over vanilla investors, who fawn over traditional blue chips (paying 2% to 3%). That’s not enough. It’s easy math.

Let’s reference the million-dollar portfolio again. If we invest in the “broader market,” the S&P 500 yields 1.5%. It’s proxy, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), pays a meager $15,000 in annual income.… Read more

Let’s book these 104% profits today.

We’ll sell this winner and then consider a 9.3% dividend that could really soar in 2023. It couldn’t be any cheaper, either—this high-quality fund is trading at a 17% discount to fair value!

But wait, there’s more in the bargain bin. I’ll also share a 5.9% payer that is, likewise, trading for just 83 cents on the dollar—also 17% off!

More on these incredibly cheap dividends in a moment. First, the winner.

Remember when we “pounded the table” on Exxon Mobil (XOM) in April 2021? We were right. The then-6.1% payer was too cheap!… Read more