Author Archive: Brett Owens

If you own a bond fund, it’s probably down in recent months. Let’s talk about why and walk through three popular fixed-income ideas from worst to first.

We’ll start with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT). TLT is the knee-jerk investment that many “first-level” investors buy when they are looking for bond exposure. Unfortunately, there are two big problems with TLT:

1. It only yields 2.1%.
2. Worse yet, its 19-year duration is drubbing its total returns.

Any kid knows that 19 years is “way too long” to hold a bond when inflation is running a hot 7.5%. (Please, somebody get these TLT investors a Contrarian Income Report subscription!)… Read more

There’s a “double shot” of upside waiting for us in real estate investment trusts (REITs) right now, and some of these companies—like the 3 we’ll discuss below—are so stuffed with cash they can’t hike payouts fast enough!

REITs are among our favorite dividend plays because:

• They’re “pass through” entities—REITs own property ranging from apartments to seniors’ homes and malls. They simply collect rent checks, take out enough to keep the buildings in good shape, then hand the rest to us.

• They pay zero corporate tax, so long as they pay out 90% of their net income as dividends. This tax “hall pass” means even more dividends (and faster dividend growth!)

Nearly two years ago, our Contrarian Income Report service picked up cheap oil dividends that, at the time, yielded nearly 11.8%. With oil trading at negative prices (meaning producers were paying people to take barrels off of their hands), our purchase didn’t feel warm and fuzzy. But then again, most successful contrarian trades don’t.

We recognized that oil prices were likely in the midst of a “Crash ‘n’ Rally” pattern. This is an oil-price phenomenon that has played out several times before.

We discussed this back in 2021:

Energy prices tend to “crash ’n’ rally.” The crash is quick, while the ensuing rally lasts for years.… Read more

I have no idea why “income” investors mess around with dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs). Most don’t yield enough to matter.

If the goal is to retire on dividends, why not “automatically” bag a 10%+ income stream and 100%+ upside?

Better yet, this outsized cash flow drops into your account—and grows—every single month!

It takes almost no work. (Just one small, but potent step, which I’ll show you shortly.)

Before we get to that, let’s look at just how easy it is to use this proven strategy to double—and even triple—the cash stream your portfolio is throwing off today.… Read more

Let’s set ourselves up for some quick 61%+ returns—and accelerate our dividend growth—by “front-running” stocks that are about to split their shares.

I call this my “Dividend Triple Play” strategy because, as you’ll see in a moment, it uses three critical indicators: a looming share split, dividend growth and share buybacks, to propel us to serious gains and payout hikes.

Members of my Hidden Yields dividend-growth service recently benefited from this setup—and it helped them walk away with a sweet 61% return!  It’s easy to repeat, and I’ll even give you the ticker of another stock that could be our next high-flying “dividend splitter” below.… Read more

As contrarians, you and I make our profits from stocks that are under-loved and under-covered. And today, we’re going to discuss five “under the radar” names with the potential to return up to 34% per year, every year, no matter what happens with the broader markets.

These stock prices have the potential to increase by 10% to 34% annually because that is how fast these dividends are growing. This type of growth may sound remarkable, and that is because the best dividend-growth opportunities are found in Wall Street’s blind spot: “mid caps.”

Mid-cap stocks don’t get the love that blue chips enjoy, which is perfect for us, because these are dividends that literally double every few years.… Read more

As the stock market returns to Planet Earth, we contrarians will have an opportunity to cherry pick some bargains. This is a good thing for us income seekers. We’ve been thin on dividend deals since the Federal Reserve cranked the printing presses in the spring of 2020.

Last year was slim pickings for income plays. When the Fed’s easy money drives prices of everything higher and higher, our dividend yields go down.

This makes it challenging for us to identify meaningful yields with a bit of upside. After all, we’re in the business of buying low and selling high (not buying high and hoping to ride a price even higher).… Read more

We’ve been saying the 2022 edition of the stock market will be a mess for a while now—and we were right. But there are still dividend-paying gems out there: we just need to know where to look. (I’ve got three “safety-first” bargain buys for you below.)

The “mess,” of course, was inflation caused by Jay Powell’s tidal wave of cheap money! Now he needs to ditch his Wall Street friends to clean it up:

Why the Fed’s Tune Flipped so Fast

With consumer prices soaring, the so-called “Fed put”: the central bank’s tendency to change tack to rescue a plunging stock market, is dead.… Read more

“America’s retirement fund” is looking awfully shaky. Income investors should consider replacing the over-owned S&P 500 index fund with these underappreciated yields up to 7.5%.

The S&P 500 has face-planted right out of 2022’s starting gate, flirting with a correction (that’s a decline of 10% or more) less than a month into the year.

If you’re retired, or thinking about retirement, these drawbacks are costly. They can erase years of hard work in a few bad trading sessions.

This is why we contrarians, who focus on cash flow, lean on “preferred” stocks, instead. These are special classes of shares issued by the same blue-chip firms in the S&P 500.… Read more

Just three weeks ago, we discussed the likelihood that the stock market was going to be a mess this year.

It’s already a train wreck.

You’re probably wondering whether you should buy more shares of your favorite dividend. Well, if you’re sick of wondering, use this simple yet effective “market timing” technique.

Dollar cost averaging (DCA) probably helped you build your impressive retirement portfolio. And DCA is more than just an initial fortune builder. It can also build wealth and income streams during train wreck markets like these.

It was the regular weekly, monthly and/or yearly purchases throughout your earning years that helped you buy more shares of stock low (and buy fewer shares higher).… Read more