Author Archive: Brett Owens

Money printing is back in a big way, and we’ve been on the beat all month long. Two weeks ago, your income writer mentioned the other “I” word, inflation, and watched our customer service email box fill up.

Readers, rightfully so, were concerned that Fed Chair Jay Powell has been not-so-subtly orchestrating the largest money creation effort of all time. JP created more than $2.5 trillion since March, and in doing so, made all previous quantitative easing (QE) efforts look like amateur hour:

“Now That’s How You QE!” – Chairman JP

Lat week, your dividend analyst further stirred the pot by mentioning the other “D” word, deflation.… Read more

Need more proof this market is completely upside down? Look no further than this mess with Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ).

You likely know the story: the car-rental chain, run off the road by the coronavirus, filed for bankruptcy over the Memorial Day weekend. On the first trading day afterward, May 26, the stock fell to $0.56 … then soared 10X!

Investors Compete to See Who Can Lose the Most

It’s pulled back a bit since, but is still up 200% from where it stood right after its bankruptcy filing.

And get this: 159,000 of users of the popular Robinhood trading app owned Hertz as of June 19, according to Robintrack.… Read more

Successful dividend investing is simple, though not necessarily easy. There are nuances which trip up many investors (including most professionals!). These twists and turns create “yield alpha” opportunities for contrarian-minded income investors like us.

If everyone else in the market were perfectly grounded and calculated, there would be no chance for us to make above-average returns. Thanks to these inefficiencies, we are able to bank big yields and price gains in Dividend Land. Ready to retire on dividends? Follow these five steps and we’ll do it together. Let’s start with an obvious yet underappreciated rule for income investors.

Step 1: Count Your Dividends

Since we focus on high yield, most of our returns come from the “yield” component of stocks.… Read more

I sure started a stir last week when I mentioned the other “I” word. Our usual beat here is income, but last week we discussed inflation and what it means for our dividend-paying bonds and stocks.

We received quite the response. A big hat tip to our excellent customer service team for fielding your questions!

I owe you a bit more detail, so let’s get into our financial FAQs this week. And while we’re at it, let me stir the pot a bit more by dropping the other “D” word, deflation.

We’re not getting theoretical for the sake of it.… Read more

This crisis has caused a lot of folks to develop a crippling fear when it comes to REITs: they see the beating mall owners like Simon Property Group (SPG) have taken and swear REITs off for good. 

To be sure, SPG took it on the chin in March, and has not gotten up:

Simon’s Business Model: Broken for Good

But way too many people think REITs are about shopping malls, and that’s about it. It’s too bad, because this first-level thinking causes them to miss out on a lot of upside—and dividend growth, too.

Beyond the Mall

Members of my Hidden Yields service know better: we wanted nothing to do with mall landlords before this crisis, because Amazon.com… Read more

The broader market, as defined by the S&P 500, has rallied like crazy. But don’t worry, you haven’t “missed out” on anything. The rally has been carried by large, and largely non-dividend paying stocks!

Most income plays are just now getting up off the mat. We’ll discuss one of my favorites today.

Energy, for example, is in the middle of a “crash-and-rally” pattern. The ultimate cure for low energy prices is (or perhaps, was) low energy prices. Reason being, low prices force producers to slash output like crazy to save money, which in turn reduces supply which in turn boosts prices.… 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.  Surely, they are reflecting the broader optimism that investors have about the US and the rest of the world.

Hold on a sec—my publisher is reminding me that the curfew in my town just lifted on Monday. Seven days of being home by 8pm, following two months of being told to shelter-in-place. As a friend of mine pointed out, we haven’t been double grounded like this since high school.

The news is usually a downer, but these days it’s tough to make it through the headlines without a handful of Xanax.… Read more

If you’re shopping for high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs), two numbers are critical:

• The dividend: There are about 500 CEFs out there, and they boast huge payouts of 7% on average. Many also pay monthly.

• The discount: Due to a quirk in the CEF structure, these funds often trade at discounts to the per-share value of their portfolios. Called the discount to net asset value (NAV), this indicator is the clearest indicator of imminent price gains I’ve ever seen in an investment.

A Proven Gain Predictor

Thanks to the discount to NAV—which is available on any fund screener—you literally have a CEF’s market price on a string!… Read more

Imagine investing a million dollars and getting back … a pathetic $19,000 in income every year.

You don’t have to imagine—because that’s exactly what you’d get if you bought the typical S&P 500 stock today, which yields a sad 1.9%. That’s not much and these days, you can lose that in one afternoon!

No wonder dividends get no respect!

But I’ve got good news: that 1.9% doesn’t matter a bit to us. In fact, it’s a distraction from the real opportunity I want to show you: a dead-simple, 3-step shot at a much bigger payout.

I’m talking about 6%+ in cash here.… Read more

“How fast should I deploy my cash into your dividend stocks?”

It’s a common question from the new income investors that are always finding their way to us (welcome!) We publish a plethora of dividend analysis on our website ContrarianOutlook.com. And, for premium subscribers, we also issue specific buy, hold and sell recommendations for select stocks and funds.

So, where should a new reader (or, better yet, premium subscriber!) start? Let’s walk through some steps you can take to make the best use of our information as you build your dividend-powered retirement portfolio.

First, Pick Your Stocks

Stock picking is step one, and as discussed, we have no shortage of dividend coverage around here.… Read more