Author Archive: Brett Owens

$500K can be enough money to retire on. Even as early as age 50!

The trick is to convert the pile of cash into cash flow that can pay the bills. I’m talking about $35,000 to $40,000 per year or more in dividend income on that nest egg, thanks to 7% and 8% yields.

These are passive payouts that show up every quarter or, better yet, every month. Meanwhile, we keep that $500K nest egg intact. Or, better yet, grind that principal higher steadily and safely.

Got more in your retirement account? Cool—more monthly dividend income for you!

We’ll talk specific stocks, funds and yields in a moment.… Read more

We contrarian dividend buyers love it when an insider loads up on their own (ideally washed out!) stock. Especially when that stock is:

1. Throwing off its highest yield in years.
2. Growing its payout at a 9% annualized rate, and …
3. Tied to one of the biggest megatrends there is: our never-ending addiction to mobile data.

We’re seeing all three of the above with cell-tower REIT Crown Castle International (CCI), which has been knocked down some 37% in this selloff. That’s driven its yield up to 4.4%—just a shade below all-time highs!

A Megatrend Stock With a Mega-Yield

The insider? One Matthew Thornton III, a member of Crown Castle’s board who has a lot of skin in the game.… Read more

Vanilla investors are selling. Which means we income-focused contrarians are buying.

Our goal, after all, is to retire on dividends. So why would we run from the biggest dividends that Mr. and Ms. Market have presented us in years?

Yields, yields, yields. We recently discussed 29 income funds yielding more than 8%.

How about stocks? Glad you asked. Let’s chat about 16 sweet large-cap cash-machine stocks paying up to 15%.

If you didn’t catch it, I recently chatted with Moe Ansari on his Market Wrap program. You can read more about it here, but in short, I said the time to sell was over—we’re flush with cash and ready to buy.… Read more

The Bank of England has recently aroused financial animal spirits with its on and off and on again buying of long-dated bonds. Which has this 8.8% payer—and more like it—ready to rally like crazy.

But wait, isn’t this a bear market? Brett, the financial media is telling me that interest rates are going to the moon. And that my cheap bonds are about to get even cheaper.  

They don’t call us contrarians for nothing! It’s our job, as original thinkers, to identify inflection points in the market. And we have one that is setting up for a big bond bounce.… Read more

Utility dividends haven’t been this generous in years. Thank you, stock market selloff!

These yield machines have been expensive for a while. Today, utility stocks are finally cheap—and their dividends are finally high enough to get our attention!

That makes right now our time to buy. The Federal Reserve created this deal, and hey, the Fed could easily take it away with any hint of a policy pivot.

History tells us that cheap utility stocks don’t stay in the bargain bin for long. I’m staring at two in particular that are likely to bounce back next year. Both of these stocks are likely to deliver double-digit payout hikes, too.… Read more

I love dividend stocks that analysts hate. For two reasons:

1. By definition, they can’t be downgraded.
2. In weak moments, they are candidates to be upgraded.

And since vanilla investors, for whatever reason, listen to analysts, upgrades can provide a nice “pop” in the stock price.

So give us the stocks that can only “fall out of the basement window”—yielding a fat 14.6% on average—that carry this ultimate contrarian indicator:

They’ve lost the typically rosy analyst community. Which means it’s time for us to find them.

Does Wall Street Say “Sell”? That’s a Big “Buy” Signal

Wall Street’s “pros” are an optimistic bunch.… Read more

This dividend stock yields 10.4%. But really it boasts an annual “hidden yield” of 18.4% when we consider buybacks.

Eighteen-point four percent per year. Wait, what?!

(Your strategist pauses to point upwards towards the late, great Norm Macdonald.)

A Hidden Yield Formula for 18.4% Yearly Returns

Now what if I told you this stock was also being heavily shorted? Over 11% of this company’s outstanding shares are being sold short. This is fuel for a potential rally because these positions must be bought back later.

Remember, when traders sell a stock short, they book the sale in advance. “I think this stock is so terrible, I want to sell it at today’s price.”… Read more

We have plenty of cheap dividend stocks to buy today. But which ones are really bargains—and which are cheap for a reason?

The P/E ratio won’t tip us off. We’re heading into a recession. That “E” stands for earnings. Profits can disappear quickly if we’re not careful.

Let’s look past the vanilla headline metrics and instead search where almost no one else does. Let’s have what the corporate insiders are having.

This strategy can set us up for 275% gains or more. We’ll discuss why in a moment, featuring a trio of bullish factors that are lining up for a select group of stocks.… Read more

While vanilla investors worry along with the herd, we contrarians are buying. And oh, the yields we have available!

As I write to you today, I’m staring at no less than 29 income funds that yield more than 8%. Twenty-nine paying more than eight!

For retirees with a million-dollar portfolio, this is $80,000 per year in dividend income. Actually, more, because some of these funds pay up to 13%.

Why would we sell when this is the best time to buy in years? I explained this while yapping with Moe Ansari on his Market Wrap program. Moe asked me: “We hear all the ‘Doom and Gloomers’ out there.… Read more

Generally, recessions are bullish for bonds. Which makes this 3.8% bond yield a “best recession bet.”

Why are we talking bonds in a year where they have all been crushed? Well, that’s the reason. The cure for poor bond performance is the high yields that are now staring us in the face. We look forward, not backward.

If you took our cue and used cash under your mattress as a bond proxy for the year, then you are sitting pretty. Because now, we finally have attractive fixed-income yields!

Granted, safety is the key here. Remember, we are picking an economic slowdown as our catalyst.… Read more