Author Archive: Brett Owens

“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 only the safest yields,” they continue.

Fortunately I’m no stranger to dividends that thrive in bear markets. We fittingly launched the Contrarian Income Report months before the market’s tantrum in 2016. The S&P 500 promptly dropped 10% as a welcome present!

It was no problem for our strong dividends, however. In fact, subscribers who focused on their own holdings rather than the financial news likely have missed the broader carnage altogether.… Read more

Let’s ride this “tariff tiff” to a cash stream that’s double (and maybe even triple) the 2% and 3% payouts your friends are likely “grinding it out” with today.

I’m talking about a stout 5% yield here. And that’s just the start, because that payout has surged 64% in the last 10 years, and is set to repeat that feat in the next 10.

While we’re at it, we’ll “2008-proof” your portfolio, too, carefully cushioning your nest egg from the next market collapse.

And we’ll do all of this with the three unusual “pullback-proof” stocks I’ll show you shortly. Each is set to hold its own in the next crash, then soar when the dust settles.… Read more

Is it time to tariff-proof our dividends (again)?

A couple months into the U.S.-China trade tensions, I said the key was to buy dividend-growth stocks: “Payout growth like that is proven to throw an updraft under share prices when the markets get skittish due to any kind of worry: trade spats, terrorist attacks, wars—you name it.”

Then I highlighted a trio of dividend growers–Life Storage (LSI), Ecolab (ECL) and Carnival Corp. (CCL)–that looked primed to swim upstream. Unpredictable fuel costs helped weigh on our Carnival pick, but even then, the combined total return of all three selections nearly doubled the S&P 500’s return.… Read more

Is it time to tariff-proof our dividends (again)?

Let’s look at our favorite payers with respect to a potential trade war. Could tariffs derail the 7.2% gravy train I’ve put together for you? Let’s rewind to the last time protectionism flared in America, 17 years ago, to see how some of our stocks and funds performed during the last trade tiff.

On March 20, 2002, President George W. Bush whacked steel imports with tariffs ranging from 8% to 20%. The duties stayed in effect until December 4, 2003. The European Union was unamused and hit back with tariffs of its own.… Read more

Is your nest egg way smaller than a million bucks? Do you worry you’ll never be able to retire?

I know: who doesn’t have this fear, right? Especially in today’s twitchy market.

Good news: you absolutely can leave the grind behind. And probably sooner than you think.

You can do it on far less than a million, too—just $490K (and maybe less than that, depending on your circumstances). The best part: you won’t have to sell a single stock in retirement.

Choose Your Own (Retirement) Adventure

Today I’m going to show you two routes to our $490K retirement: if you’re near (or already in) your golden years, you’ll want option 1: a collection of steady dividend payers yielding 7% and up.… Read more

As investors near retirement, they tend to favor bonds, which provide income and less drama than stocks. However, less drama means less potential upside. With retirees living longer than ever before—which means much more time for inflation to eat away at your nest egg’s purchasing power—it’s important to not go too conservative too early in life. And fortunately, today even 65 or 70 may be too early!

One suggested solution for our long life expectancy “problem” is to stay with stocks longer. But stocks can go down as well as up, and a big pullback can inflict permanent damage on a portfolio.… Read more

Did the latest tariff tiff set the stage for the next pullback in stocks? Will this bull market actually die of old age?

The macro picture is dicey and stock valuations are pricey, but we must stay invested. The stock market goes up about two-thirds of the time. Permabears miss out on compounding and it’s not as easy to be a part-time bear as it sounds.

To illustrate this let’s consider a study by Hulbert Financial. The firm looked at the best “peak market timers”–the gurus who correctly forecasted the bursting of the Internet bubble in March 2000 and the Great Recession in October 2007.… Read more

“Brett, where the heck do I find cheap dividends in this market?”

A desperate reader asks this question almost daily.

I’ll be honest: with the market up double digits this year, it’s been tough for me to sift out cheap “pullback-proof” 7%+ payers to recommend. (But not impossible: I’ve turned up two absurdly cheap funds yielding up to 10%; see below.)

“Pullback-Proof” Dividends Are Endangered—But Not Extinct

You probably noticed I said “pullback-proof” a second ago. By that I mean stocks with the secret ingredient everyone craves: high dividends you can pocket without the underlying stock melting away in a meltdown.… Read more

We retirees and soon-to-be retirees have a dilemma. The traditional pension is just about gone. Social Security won’t support the lifestyle most of us want. We are left to our own devices.

But even if we do build up a fat balance in a 401(k) or other company retirement plan, how do we make it last? Especially when the bank pays “zero point nothing.” Today, you can’t find anything that pays significant “interest.”

This is becoming a crisis in the US. We are told that stocks provide the best returns over the long term, but retirees need income now. Most retirement investors prefer dividend income to long-term gains, but yields haven’t been this low in decades!… Read more

Got $100,000 sitting in cash? Here’s how I’d double is ASAP with safe dividend stocks.

Option 1: “Grind it higher” with cash flow. Put the money into stocks and funds paying current yields of 7.3% and grab a little bit of upside to boot.

Option 2: Double it in four or five years (turn $100,000 into $200,000!) thanks to yearly total returns of 16.3%.

You choose. The “buy and hope” obsessed folks on Wall Street provide us with these two free lunch options. However, this isn’t an entire buffet! We must choose course one or course two.

So, let’s first figure out how much of a yearly “dividend salary” we’re looking for from this pile of money.… Read more