Author Archive: Brett Owens

Mainstream investors are stuck with cheesy dividend ETFs paying measly sub-3% yields. But we contrarians can grab ourselves a lot more dividend cash with a “switch” in our portfolio that more than doubles our yield, to 6.6%!

We’ll be fully diversified, too, with bonds, S&P 500 stocks and real estate populating our holdings—703 investments in all. And they’re all hand-picked by expert money managers who evaluate credit and interest rate risk for us.

Plus, this “6.6% retirement solution” has more price upside! The 3 battleship funds we’ll get into below are geared to grind higher as they pay their dividends, no matter what the market does.… Read more

Since traditional banks have backed off on business lending over the years, BDCs (business development companies) have stepped in. They provided much-needed debt, equity, and other financial solutions to small businesses—and much-needed income to dividend investors.

As an asset class, BDCs yield 8%. We’ll discuss three popular payers—with dividends up to 8.3%—in a moment.

Congress whipped up BDCs with a few pen strokes in 1980, creating a structure that’s incentivized to provide smaller companies with financing. BDCs receive special tax privileges, and in exchange, they must return at least 90% of their taxable profits to shareholders as dividends.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because that same tradeoff is enjoyed by real estate investment trusts (REITs), which were formed the same way, 20 years prior.… Read more

I sold this stock for a 4X return. It was a big gaffe.

Fortunately, my amends—a renewed recommendation—helped careful contrarian readers to 22% profits in just over three weeks!

We’ll talk about their haul in a moment. First, let me come clean with my hiccup.

Twenty years ago, when I was young, naïve, and relatively broke, I piled my life savings into Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS). My massive $500 stake netted me about 25 shares.

DKS had recently gone public. I was completely “dialed in” to the offering, having spent much of my youth combing the aisles of the nearby Dick’s Amherst, NY retail location.… Read more

Today I’m going to give you a shot at the next Texas Instruments (TXN), which has delivered a dividend that’s surged 104% since members of my Hidden Yields service bought it in 2017.

Or the next Jefferies Financial Group (JEF), whose dividend has popped 67% higher in the last year alone. 

The key to breakneck payout growth like this is investing in megatrends that reshape society. Right now, we’re tracking six:

• Technology, as it reshapes all our lives in the COVID era.

• Healthcare, as more people pay attention to their health (and more employers entice scarce workers with enhanced medical benefits).

Dividend Aristocrats are popular. Too popular, if you ask me.

I’ll concede that the surest, safest way big stock market gains is dividend growth. Over time, stock prices are literally pulled higher by their payouts. Their dividends act as magnets that pull their shares higher and make their shareholders rich.

The Aristocrats have delivered plenty of wealth. Heck, to be admitted to the club they must have a track record of 25 annual dividend hikes in a row. At minimum.

Which is fantastic past performance. Problem is, the stock market looks ahead.

Many of these stocks are slowing down. Some—such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Coca-Cola (KO)—have elevated payout ratios of anywhere between 60% to 90%.… Read more

Contrary to popular opinion, we shouldn’t believe everything we read online. Even simple tasks such as counting dividends are often mishandled by our internet overlords.

Mainstream financial websites such as Yahoo! Finance and Google Finance should know better. Check out the misinformation they are spreading about our beloved PIMCO Dynamic Credit & Mortgage Income Fund (PCI). 

We added PCI to our Contrarian Income Report portfolio five years ago. If you bought PCI then, you’ve enjoyed $12.19 in dividends off an initial entry price of just $18.42. That’s a 66% “cash return” on our investment already!

But the charts provided by Yahoo and Google lost track of these dividends.… Read more

Do yourself a favor and shut out all the “experts” who say it’s impossible to retire on dividends alone. They’re just plain wrong! Because even today, with stocks soaring (and dividend yields in the tank), you absolutely can build a portfolio yielding a solid 7%+.

We’re going to do it now, and we’re going to do it easily—with just three funds. These funds—part of a unique asset class called closed-end funds (CEFs)— pay 7.6% between them, and the biggest yielder of the bunch throws off a huge 8.7% payout!

And they’re just the start.

A 7.6% dividend yield is enough to pay you $38,000 a year on just $500K invested, and you wouldn’t have to draw a single penny of your principal to get that cash stream.… Read more

Cheap stocks are fun. We can buy a lot of shares without shelling out too much dough.

Generally speaking, most single-digit stocks are “cheap for a reason”—they are losers. But we contrarians leave no discarded stone unturned. Especially in our search for dividends that we can retire on.

There are a few inexpensive stocks that actually pay. And a select set of them that are even worth buying for their dividends.

In a minute we’ll discuss five “economy lot” yield plays that pay from 6.3% to 11.8%. These are all single-digit share prices that sell for $9 or less today.… Read more

“Regular” REITs typically buy physical properties, find someone to manage them, and lease them out. They collect rent checks and avoid paying taxes on most of these profits if they distribute 90% of their profits as payouts. This is the reason REIT stocks typically boast big yields.

Mortgage REITs (mREITs), on the other hand, don’t own buildings. They own paper. Specifically, they buy mortgage loans and collect the interest. How do they make money? By borrowing “short” (assuming short-term rates are lower) and lending “long” (if long-term rates are, as they tend to be, higher).

This business model prints money when long-term rates are steady or, better yet, declining.… Read more

If you’re worried the stock market is too expensive, well, I agree with you. This is why we’re going to discuss my two-step “12% Dividend Plan” today—so we can bank big yields without having to worry about a pullback.

Best of all, we can collect this income without having to sacrifice principal. In fact, our nest egg will generate some nice upside in addition to these big dividends.

But first, a reality check. A yield north of 12%? How the heck is that possible?

I realize it sounds like a pipe dream—especially with the S&P 500 trading at a nosebleed 31-times earnings and yielding a miserly 1.3% as I write this.… Read more