Author Archive: Brett Owens

With 2022 likely to be a wild ride, we income investors are going to lean on two key advantages. In doing so, we’ll secure 7% dividends no matter what the broader markets do.

First, we can secure this “head start” by January 1 by purchasing funds that yield 7%, on average. And these aren’t risky payouts, by the way. I’m talking about secure dividends funded by real cash flows.

And secondly, we can buy them from the bargain bin for just 90 or 95 cents on the dollar! That’s better than most investors, who pay full price (or more!) for their stocks.… Read more

The asset price “fuel” that our Federal Reserve has provided since March 2020 is going away soon. This will likely lead to continued volatility and a challenging backdrop for stocks-at-large.

Periodic “flights to safety” could benefit secure dividend stocks. We’ll touch on the outlook for income plays in a moment. First, let’s talk macro.

The stock market has been rallying for 21 months thanks to the Fed. It has gassed asset prices by buying trillions of dollars in bonds.

(Note: “Bond buying” is a polite way of saying “money printing.” The bonds were using cash that Chairman Jay Powell created out of thin air.)… Read more

Let’s take the hint from the past couple of weeks—2022 looks choppy. And why wouldn’t it? Our prolific money printer Jay Powell has (finally) admitted that inflation is real (not transitory).

His easy money had been floating the market. Now, with Jay reappointed and looking to assuage his Congressional colleagues about rising prices, he’s about to reverse the flow of money. This will likely reverse the rising tide of the market and expose select stocks.

But we dividend investors needn’t panic. With 2022 turning into a stock picker’s market, this is our time to shine. A fragmented market is just fine for us.… Read more

If the past few weeks are any indication of what’s ahead, we’d better buckle up for a volatile 2022.

Which means we should invest in the relative calm provided by monthly dividend stocks before the mainstream crowd starts looking this way. After all, what’s more soothing than thousands of dividend dollars paid every single month?

Monthly dividends are great because they line up with our expenses. Most blue-chip income stocks pay quarterly—not enough! These “lumpy” payouts result in equally lumpy retirement income. For instance, we might have a big January, but that’s followed by an OK February and a lean March where that check alone wouldn’t come close to covering the bills.… Read more

A recent research paper from Morningstar concludes that retirees should only withdraw 3.3% of their money annually. In other words, a million-dollar portfolio should only be relied on for $33,000 in annual income.

That is a sad ending for a seven-figure nest egg!

Scary, too. This $33,000 salary isn’t delivered in cash flow. No, this is a “withdrawal rate”—which means the retiree is tapping principal. Which means the retiree is buying stocks and hoping they’ll go up.

But “hope” is not a strategy. The volatile weeks we’ve seen recently have no doubt forced some terrified retirement investors into selling low.

This is “reverse dollar cost” averaging, unfortunately.… Read more

Jay Powell is finally making noises about kicking his money-printing habit, and we’re going to set ourselves up to profit with an overlooked dividend payer primed to surge in ’22.

(This company isn’t sexy, which is why the herd has ignored it, but it makes a product every food or drink maker must have—and its dividend has tripled in the last five years!)

A couple weeks ago, we talked about investing legend Martin Zweig’s landmark book Winning on Wall Street. In it, Zweig devotes 40 pages to teaching readers why they should “go with the flow” with respect to the Fed’s trend at any given moment.… Read more

Why is logging into a 401(K) such a hassle? It’s a circus when we try to log into my wife’s retirement plan. (Any task that starts with “logging into her company’s VPN” is off to a rough start.)

Most people I know don’t even bother checking these accounts. Which is probably good (and perhaps a big unintentional benefit of this user unfriendliness!). It is tough to beat the “set it and forget it” rhythm of regular retirement contributions, where dollar cost averaging works in our favor.

That’s what I did with my last 401(K). I set it once and forgot about it.… Read more

A “great reset” is underway in our economy. We were reminded of that yet again last Friday, when select stocks sailed through an otherwise brutal half-holiday on Wall Street.

Financial talking heads bemoaned the losers. But who cares about these dinosaurs? We contrarians should pay attention to the winners—and their stocks—because that’s where fortunes will be made.

I’ve seen this trend unfolding firsthand. My second software company, which focused on marketing for e-commerce stores, launched a Shopify (SHOP) app in 2013. At the time, Shopify was a fledgling platform that helped retailers sell their wares online.

We were a startup ourselves, newly minted a year prior.… Read more

No matter the financial headlines, all roads will—eventually—lead to (even higher) inflation. So, we should use pullbacks and rallies alike to make sure we are inflation-protecting our retirement portfolios.

We’ll talk specific stocks and funds in a moment. First, let’s review the mechanics of money printing.

The accommodative Federal Reserve has already increased the M2 Money Supply by 38% since the start of 2020! That’s a lot of dough that has flowed into the financial markets. With the Fed continuing to stand by to support the stock and bond markets, we should look past current concerns and realize that the “solution” to any setbacks will be more easy money.… Read more

What if I told you that, in a market this expensive, there are nine dividend stocks with price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios under nine?

And that this low P/E ratio paid 6.9% per year in dividends?!

If I didn’t research and write it, I wouldn’t believe it myself. But in a minute I will share the details on this 9-pack, which yields 4.2% to 19.2%.

We’re unlikely to see these hidden gems touted on mainstream financial websites. With the S&P 500 in the stratosphere, these ground-level bargains are being overlooked. But we contrarians see these dirt-cheap dividend stocks that:

1. Boast P/E ratios that average just 8.5.