Author Archive: Brett Owens

The “Dogs of the Dow” is one of the simplest, most well-known dividend strategies on Wall Street. And investors who choose to jump in during 2019 will be shooting for their fifth straight year of market-beating returns.

Of course, by being a little more selective, you and I can beat even the Dogs – just like we did last year!

A quick refresher: The “Dogs of the Dow” strategy involves buying the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the 30-component Dow Jones Industrial Average at the start of the year. The idea is that when you buy blue-chip stocks, high relative yields are actually signal value.… Read more

It’s a pearl of investment wisdom that’s been around for 100+ years. You’ve probably heard it over and over again.

It goes like this: if you want to make money in stocks, you must buy companies with unforgettable household names.

Too bad this “wisdom” is a relic of the past—so much so that it can actually kill your profits! I’ll show you why now, and give you four big names you should avoid, or sell if you hold them.

Then we’ll move on to two much better buys—off-the-radar companies that have been quietly handing their shareholders big price gains and massive dividend hikes that put their “cool kid” cousins to shame.… Read more

If you’re like many income investors I hear from, you’re probably worried that 2019 is already shaping up to be a repeat of 2008. The media doesn’t help – the talking heads like to conjure up fear because it draws eyeballs to the TV screen and clicks to Internet articles.

But what if they’re right? In a moment we’ll discuss the safest dividends for a serious pullback.

First, let me calm you down and add that a 2008 rerun is not our most likely scenario. As generals tend to fight the last war, investors tend to fear the last bear market.… Read more

This market wipeout has one big silver lining for income investors like you and me: dividend yields are soaring—and today we’re going to tap four of my favorite stocks for payouts all the way up to 8.9%.

First, though, to see just how incredible this buying opportunity is, look no further than the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ), the benchmark ETF for real estate investment trusts (REITs).

If you logged into your investment account now and simply bought VNQ, you’d kick-start a nice 4.8% income stream. The ETF has only shelled out a payout that big on two other occasions—and only very briefly—in the last 10 years.… Read more

What good is a 2% or 3% annual yield if you can lose it in a single trading session?

The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 are officially in bear markets, which means they’re down 20% from their peak. But bear markets don’t have to stop at 20%.

They can just keep on collapsing. And the weakest links can fall much, much farther than 20%.

In fact, they often do. Just take a look below at the 444 S&P 500 components that were part of the index during the 2007-09 selloff. Only a handful fell even close to the bear-market minimum.

Meanwhile, almost a quarter hemorrhaged 70% of their value or more!… Read more

Thanks to the December selloff, it’s relatively easy to find 9% yields. The stock market was a relentlessly receding tide in the fourth quarter, which is bad for “buy and hope” investors but quite helpful for income specialists like us.

Let’s look first at real estate investment trusts (REITs). Many now pay 9% – some good, some bad. The main index Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) has only paid this much (4.9%) twice before in the past ten years:

VNQ Is Rarely This Generous

By cherry picking the lot we can find 49 stocks paying 9% or more. But we should avoid names like Government Properties Income Trust (GOV), which frequently pops up on cute recession-proof dividend lists.… Read more

What if I told you there’s a way you can buy your favorite blue chips and get a dividend 5 times bigger than what your typical S&P 500 name pays today?

Let’s be honest: with an income stream like that, backed by popular names like cigarette maker Altria Group (MO), telco Verizon (VZ) and even Google, now known as Alphabet (GOOGL)—more on these three stocks below—you’d leap at the chance, right?

The truth is, you’d be crazy not to.

Well, now you can. And today I’m going to show you exactly how to do it—and 1 fund yielding 9.8% to get you there instantly.… Read more

Today we’re going to talk about the single biggest risk you face in your golden years.

But don’t worry—I’ll also show you how to clobber that risk and set yourself up for an easy $40,000 in cash in every year of your retirement. More on that below.

First, the risk I’m talking about is the very real chance you’ll outlive your nest egg. Because a sweeping study says you could be very wrong about the length of your retirement.

A Hidden Danger

Here’s what the numbers say: in 1992, the University of Michigan asked 26,000 Americans 50 years of age and older how long they thought they’d live.… Read more

I know it’s tempting, but right now is not the time to flee from stocks to cash. Markets are extremely oversold and due for some sort of relief rally (at least). Liquidate now and we’re no better than the average investor who underperforms by selling low after buying high.

Plus by collecting our dividends we’ll soon outpace the investors who smartly (or more likely, luckily) sold in September. Here’s why.

Studies show it’s very difficult (and really, impossible) to know when it’s time to “get back into stocks.” Hulbert Financial recently ran the numbers for Barron’s on the advisors it monitors.… Read more

You can double your money in perfectly safe, well-known dividend stocks. But only if you know the secret! Novice income investors gravitate toward higher current yields, but often that can result in hitching your sleigh to stagnant stocks with equally stagnant dividends.

For monster total returns, we want to pay attention to dividend increases. Because these hikes don’t just bump up the yield on your initial investment – they also trigger stock-price increases, too. If a stock is already paying out 3% but then juices its payout by 10%, investors will see that new 3.3% yield and buy more shares. That buying will drive the stock’s price up, and the yield back down, eventually toward 3%.… Read more