Author Archive: Brett Owens

Thank you to our 1,578 Contrarian Income Report subscribers who attended our Q1 webcast last week! We received 114 questions during our one-hour call, plus several dozen more beforehand. Amazing.

Thank you for the thoughtful questions. I’ve read each and every one. Let’s chat about popular closed-end fund (CEF) topics today. (Next week, we’ll circle back with your equity-focused dividend questions.)

Q: Brett, what are your thoughts about Calamos Convertible Funds (such as CCD, CHI and CHY), which are currently yielding about 8%? Thank you.

Convertible bonds are a big beneficiary of Jay Powell’s money printing activity. Convertibles pay regular interest.… Read more

Most people don’t realize it, but there are 500 funds out there paying massive dividends: I’m talking rich 7% payouts on average.

That’s five times more than index funds pay! And many of these 500 criminally overlooked funds clobber their benchmarks, too.

I’m talking about closed-end funds (CEFs), which are run by real human beings, not algorithms. And despite what most advisors will tell you, the stock-pickers running CEFs beat the market on the regular.

To see what I mean, consider two CEFs: the  Duff & Phelps Utility & Infrastructure Fund (DPG), which holds utility stocks  like NextEra Energy (NEE) and Dominion Energy (D), and the Tekla Healthcare Opportunities Fund (THQ), holder of major drug firms like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Abbott Laboratories (ABT).… Read more

As we Americans reemerge from our homes, select “return to normal” dividend payers are poised to deliver big gains. I’m talking about upside of 40% in addition to their 4% to 10% current yields.

But aren’t recovery stocks already expensive? We recently discussed how Americans aren’t exactly sleeping on the American vacation. The Invesco Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment ETF (PEJ), which includes restaurants, hotels, casinos and more, has gone skyward of late—and it’s not alone.

A quick look at some of the best ETFs over the past three months shows where investors believe the reopening money is heading:

Unfortunately for income investors, these industries tend not to pay dividends.… Read more

What a time to be alive! The stock market is booming, and many of our favorite income investments are ticking higher every day.

Sure, we need to credit all of the money that our intrepid Fed chair Jay Powell has printed in the last year. But with the 10-year rate spiking, we now need to ask ourselves:

Is inflation here already?

Recently, I noted that Fed Chair Jay Powell was doing quite the impression of the infamous 1700s economist John Law, who was the original money printer. (And noted gambler, womanizer, speculator, and creator of multiple manias that included the Mississippi Bubble and South Sea Bubble.… Read more

Tech stocks have finally taken a breather—and we’re going to pounce on this dip—and grab a rare “double discount” while we’re at it.

The strategy we’re going to use also lets us “squeeze” the biggest tech names for payouts that are unheard of in the sector—I’m talking yields up to 6.3%.

Mom’s Coupon-Clipping Goes High-Tech

This approach is an ode to my mom who, to this day, refuses to pay the sticker price. If there’s a coupon to be found, she’ll find it and find another coupon to secure a double discount—even if it requires management approval to apply!

The dividend equivalent of the back-to-back coupon is buying discounted closed-end funds (CEFs) after a pullback, and that’s exactly the setup we’ve got in tech now.… Read more

The Nasdaq’s recent quick 11% slip earned the “correction” label. This alarmed many newbie investors who bought technology shares hoping they would keep heading higher.

We careful contrarians, on the other hand, welcome pullbacks like these. Being focused on income, we are now able to go shopping and secure more tech dividends per dollar.

The only “catch” is that we shouldn’t wait long to buy the bargain tech payers. Remember the Nasdaq’s bear market in late 2018? It bottomed out in less than three months.

The tech index sank even farther, much faster, in 2020, sinking 30% in just over a month.… Read more

Does a rising 10-year Treasury yield mean we should move on from municipal (muni) bonds? We’ll talk muni strategy in a moment. First, let’s pay homage to these tax-efficient payers.

Munis are superior to Treasuries two ways. First, they pay more. Even with the 10-year rate popping above 1.6% earlier this week, we can double or triple our dividends with munis. The iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB), for example, yields 2.1%, which is 30%+ better than the still-chintzy T-Bill.

Plus, munis have tax benefits. MUB is an easy-to-buy vehicle with a tax-advantaged payout that is higher than its stated 2.1% yield.… Read more

There’s a quiet shift happening in the market, and we’re going to tap it for some big, and growing, dividends, plus serious price upside, too.

Here’s what I mean: after tech ran the show all of last year, fanboy (and -girl) faves like Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Tesla (TSLA) are cooling off, and other corners of the market are making a play for the lead role.

Big Tech Rolls Over …

Here’s more proof that a big shift is underway: all through last year, the S&P 500 as a whole powered higher. But if your portfolio is properly diversified, you know that this gain was a mirage.… Read more

These popular dividends were taken away in 2020. But rumors of a payout comeback are swirling, and the best time to buy these stocks may be right now.

Before America goes on a vacation binge, that is. See, these dividend payers will directly benefit from travelers being rereleased into the wild. We have been homebound for nearly a year now. (Sorry for the reminder!) But brighter days are ahead, and I know that my family is already booking out travel into 2022.

Should we pick up some hotel stocks while we’re online? After all, hotels will naturally benefit from our restlessness, as will their landlords—the real estate investment trusts (REITs) that were tossed aside this time last year.… Read more

My friends and I couldn’t have been more excited about our college commencement speaker. Fresh off an electrifying cameo in the 2003 comedy movie Old School, James Carville’s next act was Cornell University.

At 21 years old, we had no idea what Carville actually did for a living. (Answer: Political consultant.) And though he was an engaging and entertaining speaker, I don’t remember a single word the “Ragin’ Cajun” said. Too bad, because he has had some major wisdom to impart.

Ten years earlier, Carville made an observation that is more prescient now than ever. After watching bond investors rebuff President Clinton’s economic stimulus proposals because they demanded a higher interest rate for US Treasuries, Carville coined this gem:

“I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as a president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter.