Author Archive: Brett Owens

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are simply the best dividend payers you can own right now. These tax loopholes literally “print money” when interest rates fall. So, with Fed Chair Jay Powell signaling that rate easing is on the way, we should load up on real estate dividends.

REITs themselves have flown under cover for years, but “basic” income investors have finally started to wake up to just how effective REITs are. In fact, these income-friendly real estate plays are, quite literally, world beaters.

A Netherlands study examining global assets from 1960 to 2015 found that the top-performing area of the market was not stocks, not bonds, not gold – but real estate investment companies and trusts.… Read more

Most dividend investors understandably love the idea of 10%+ yields. It sure makes retirement easy!

Earn $50,000 per year in dividends alone on a $500K portfolio, or $100,000 annually on a million? Spend your lavish payouts without ever tapping principal? What’s not to like!

Plus, the recent stock market pullback has benefited investors like us because we can snag more dividends for our dollar. Yields are higher overall, and that’s a good thing.

But this strategy is a bit more complicated than simply finding 10% yields and buying them. We must smartly select the stocks that are going to pay our 10%+ dividends securely without tapping their own share prices to pay us.… Read more

Forget the trade war. There’s a bigger danger that too many investors (and especially vulnerable retirees) are ignoring today.

That’s the threat of a snap dividend cut—and the massive damage it can do to your income and your nest egg.

More on that—and 4 imminent dividend cuts you need to dodge now—shortly.

Why I’m Sounding the Alarm

First, there are two reasons why folks are sleepwalking along, wrongly thinking all of their dividends are safe:

• The economy is strong, churning along at a 3.1% rate—lulling most folks to think that only the worst companies would be forced to slash payouts.

• The Fed’s kabuki theater: After being set on raising rates last year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is signalling a rate cut.

I told you GameStop’s (GME) dividend was toast. Did you sell, or better yet, short the stock?

Just one quarter ago, we chatted about the inevitability of this paper payout ending in tears:

Brick and mortar video game retailer GameStop (GME) is a throwback to yesteryear. It’s survived the rise of digital distribution for video games thus far because Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo haven’t fully digitalized their sales. (In other words, they still sell physical boxes that are bought at stores like GameStop.)

 

But this sales model is ultimately toast and GameStop doesn’t have a convincing second act.

In a word… no.

Interest rates are plummeting, which is usually “prime time” for mREITs like Annaly Capital (NLY). The “original mortgage REIT” has traditionally held fixed-rate securities, which rise in price as rates decline.

Annaly investors remember the “roaring ‘00s” fondly. From 2000 through 2012, mortgage rates ticked down, down, down while the stock climbed higher and higher:

The Roaring ‘00s (and Beyond) for Annaly Investors

While Annaly delivered total returns of 609%, its yield bounced between a handsome 10% and a gaudy 15%. What a run!

Of course, even the best party has its lulls. This happened when then-Fed chair Alan Greenspan began raising rates in the summer of 2004.… Read more

I know I don’t have to tell you it’s tough (and very frustrating) trying to get any kind of income stream from your savings these days.

The average S&P 500 stock yields just 1.9%. That’s not even enough to cover inflation!

Treasuries? The 10-year note yields an almost equally pathetic 2.3%.

But there are still safe 7%+ dividends to be had—even in the “income desert” we’re living in now. I’ll show you three funds yielding up to 8.5% (more than 4 times the typical S&P 500 yield) in a second.

Dividends like those can let you clock out on a nest egg that’s far smaller than advisers say you need.… Read more

I love “secret dividends.” They’re one of the few safe ways to collect yields up to 11.9% in a 1.9% world!

They’re also a great way to protect your portfolio against big market pullbacks, too. If you find yourself wincing every time you check your stocks, perhaps some secret dividends would help steady the ship.

“I’m 11 years older now. Brett, I just can’t have a repeat of 2008,” my new subscribers often share.

“Now tell me which of these dividends will survive a bear market like that. I want to buy the safest yields,” they continue.

Fortunately I’m no stranger to dividends that thrive in bear markets.… Read more

Where’s the market going from here? Well, if you own these seven “never go down” dividend payers, you probably don’t care.

My readers are often asking for safe income ideas. For stocks that pay dividends and never drop in price. It’s a very difficult task, but not quite impossible.

For most long-term investors who want big dividends–I’m talking 6%, 7% and even 8%+ current yields–I recommend a combination of a contrarian and “No Withdrawal” approach. This consists of buying safe dividend-paying bonds and funds when they are out of favor and holding them through any market turbulence.

Big dividends are the rubber duckies of the investing world.… Read more

Think it’s impossible to bag 852% gains and a 6% dividend in one stock?

It’s not only possible—it’s easy! I’m going to give you the three (and only three) simple steps you need to do it yourself today.

Let’s start with the one thing we’re not going to do: follow the “buy and hope” crowd into a fanboy (and girl) favorite like Netflix (NFLX).

In search of big gains, first-level investors crowd into a non-dividend-payer like Netflix, simply because it’s delivered stunning growth in the past. And they almost always dive in when the stock is at the height of its popularity, like last July, when NFLX was scraping all-time highs.… Read more

Mortgage payments. Car payments. Cell-phone bills. Power bills. Water bills. Credit card bills.

What do they all have in common?

Nobody likes them, of course. But more importantly, they all arrive relentlessly month after month.

That’s fine when you have a normal job that pays you every couple of weeks or every month. But that regular bill routine becomes considerably more daunting once you hit retirement, when much of your regular income is coming from your portfolio of dividend paying stocks … which pay out every quarter, not every month.

Investors in turn often build complicated dividend calendars that get knocked out of whack whenever they ever have to cut back on certain stocks.… Read more