Author Archive: Brett Owens

I’m sure you’ve noticed stocks whipsawing in the past week on fears of the spreading coronavirus. We’ll talk income investment strategy shortly, with a specific focus on safe dividends and profits, regardless of where the markets go from here.

First, I should say that I’m not going to go into the health or political implications of this outbreak, which has infected thousands as I write this, with 99% of those in China.

As investors, we need to look at the situation through a clear, logical financial lens. And the good news is that right now we have a great opportunity to safeguard (and even grow) our nest egg—and our dividend income, too.… Read more

The stock market is driven by greed and fear. And when the latter takes full control of the wheel, as is the case right now, value-minded income investors need to stay sharp.

It’s been more than a decade since we’ve gotten a true bear market, which tends to bring stock valuations more in line with historical norms. Even so, since 2009, we’ve experienced a few quick drawdowns that resulted in more reasonable prices, and more generous yields, than this expensive market typically offers.

There was the August 2014 correction triggered by China’s “Black Monday.” There was our near-bear experience in 2018, prompted by tariff fears, Fed rate hikes and the partial government shutdown.… Read more

A big thank you to the 1,640 subscribers who attended our Contrarian Income Report webcast! As discussed on the call, I did my best to address pre-submitted questions during the session.

Even more questions came in during the live webcast. (I love the enthusiasm!) As you know, while I’m not allowed to give personal investment advice, I do read every question. And I like to use this weekly column to address the most common questions. So, let’s chat about your shared thoughts, curiosities and concerns.

Q: Should I be worried about the latest coronavirus? If not me, how about my portfolio?… Read more

Let’s be honest: our lives would be much easier if we could just buy the typical S&P 500 stock, get the 7%+ dividends we need for retirement, and call it a day. Trouble is, the popular kids only pay high yields when the market’s in flames!

Like Pfizer (PFE), which yields a ho-hum 3.8% now. But if you’d bought when stocks bottomed during the financial crisis, you’d be sitting on a cash machine: back then (March 2009), Pfizer’s payout shot up to an incredible 11%!

Pfizer’s (Very) Temporary 11% Yield

Of course, you needed quick reflexes and nerves of steel to lock in that yield before it vanished in the rebound.… Read more

Dividends are the surest, safest building block of a comfortable retirement. And you needn’t just “settle” for retiring on dividends. You can even pick dividend stocks that’ll double your money or better, too.

All you need is a little quality.

What’s is “Quality”?

Quality isn’t some nebulous idea. It’s a “factor,” and it’s defined by a set of attributes or characteristics that the Wall Street “quants” are increasingly affectionate for.

Factor-based investing has become quite the rage in recent years. It’s a way to slice and dice the stock market by numbers. Yield, value, momentum, and other metrics are the ingredients.… Read more

Will this bull market actually die of old age this year?

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.

These were the clairvoyant advisors who had their clients out of stocks and mostly in cash when the S&P 500 was about to be chopped in half.… Read more

We’re just three weeks into 2020 and it’s already a dividend wasteland!

Happy New Year! Enjoy Your 1.7% Dividend

Drop $500K into the typical (miserly) S&P 500 stock today and you get a pathetic $713 a month in dividend payouts. That’s no retirement; it might cover the cost of your commute and coffee on the way to your job as a Walmart (WMT) greeter—so long as you avoid going to Starbucks (SBUX)!

Treasuries? Forget it. At a 1.8% yield, we’re not retiring on them, either.

No wonder I hear from so many investors wary of putting their cash in a market yielding less than inflation.… Read more

Income hunters that made their way into real estate investment trusts (REITs) at the start of 2019 are rolling in more than rent checks right now. Not only did they enjoy the sector’s generous dividends, they enjoyed big price gains to boot.

Even the “dumbly indexed” Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) peeled off a sweet 28.9% in total returns last year. That’s its best showing since 2014, and more than double its average annual return of 11%-plus over the past decade.

But do these big 2019 gains mean that we’re due to regress in 2020?

I’ve previously warned about the dangers of holding REITs whose fundamentals are out of whack with its valuation.… Read more

A big “thank you” to the 1,358 subscribers who attended our How to Bank 20% Returns (Plus Sky-High Yields!) in 2020 with Safe Dividend Stocks webcast last Wednesday! We had a lively question and answer session. I love the enthusiasm!

Let’s use our time together today to review some of the questions that kept popping up.

Q: In terms of expected returns, what is the difference between your Contrarian Income Report, Hidden Yields and new Dividend Swing Trader strategies?

Our Contrarian Income Report service is designed to maximize the income you receive from your portfolio today. In CIR, we’re fattening up your monthly and quarterly dividend checks as much as we can without sacrificing principal.… Read more

I hope last week’s Iran head-fake didn’t have you thinking about buying so-called “safe” dividends like Treasuries. Because these tired income standbys aren’t safe at all!

With your nest egg yielding a pathetic 1.9%, you’re guaranteed losses, with inflation running at 2.1%. So today we’re going to make a simple contrarian move that will:

• Hand us huge 8.6%+ cash dividends—nearly five times what Treasuries pay.
• Pay us every month, not every quarter.
• Set us up for nice price gains “on the side,” and …
• Give us “Iran insurance,” helping shield our nest egg against swift drops triggered by global instability, an economic downturn—any reason, really.