Author Archive: Brett Owens

I get lots of pushback when I post an article panning exchange-traded funds. ETF fanboys (and girls) base their love on two things: ETFs’ cheap management fees and convenience, because they let you jump into an entire sector in one click.

My response? Handle these so-called “set it and forget it” plays with a lot of caution—or risk a big dent in your savings.

Getting What You Pay For

Far too many ETFs (like the four I’ll reveal below) are cheap for a reason: lousy returns! Worse, some aren’t even cheap—like my “second-worst” pick below, which charges an outrageous 2.1% fee and has no one at the helm at all.… Read more

Seven point six percent is the average dividend for my 20 favorite stocks and funds today. These payouts provide us with a secure “No Withdrawal” Retirement Portfolio. We never have to sell any shares thanks to our dividend-powered cash flow:

Of course, we prefer upside as well. Why settle for a mere dividend when we can add some price appreciation, too! It’s possible with these high payers, and we typically enjoy gains one (or more) of these ways:

1. Additional dividend growth powers our stocks higher. Other investors see their already-generous yields rising even higher and pay more for our shares.

A crazy stock market is perfect for covered call writers. When volatility is high, so are option premiums, which means this popular income strategy should be a profitable one throughout 2019.

New to covered calls? Here’s how they work:

1. You buy at least 100 shares of a stock or fund. You now own these outright. (Why 100? Because one covered call contract covers 100 shares of underlying stock.)
2. You then sell (“write”) covered calls at a price around or above the stock’s current price for additional income. In doing so, you are agreeing to sell the stock at that price – the “strike” – in exchange for money today.

My friend is a young 41-year old millionaire. And the poor guy is basically broke!

Meanwhile there’s a conservative yet savvy grandma in the Midwest raking in more monthly income than my boy, on a modest $387,000 in savings.

What’s her secret? We’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s lament my man’s millionaire curse.

His stash of cash does him no good, other than giving him something to worry about. His million-dollar problem? He doesn’t know how to turn his green pile into a steady, sustainable income stream.

And since he believes in efficient markets, he has no interest in exploring investments that could pay him 7% or 8% annually – providing him with $75,000+ in yearly income while leaving his capital intact (or better than intact) to boot.… Read more

Think you can’t retire on anything less than a million bucks?

Many people would answer that question with a “yes.” If you’re one of them, I have great news: the “million-dollar myth” is just that, a myth.

I’ll tell you why in a second. Then I’ll reveal 4 buys throwing off a safe cash dividend yielding 8.5%—letting you fund your golden years on a lot less.

(These 4 are the tip of the iceberg, by the way. At the very end of this article, I’ll give you 20 more retirement lifesavers paying gaudy 8% average dividends, as well!)

A Million-Dollar Retirement … on $470K!?… Read more

Eric Ervin was making his wealthy client so much money that he suggested: “Hey, why don’t you just quit your job?”

The investor saw the opportunity to scale Eric’s “secret strategy” – and he wanted to help fund a new venture to bring this brilliance to the financial masses!

Both guys knew the power of dividend growth investing. But Eric’s second-level insight is what made them both a boatload of cash. He figured out a way to bet purely on the higher payouts – as close to a “sure thing” as you’ll ever see in stocks. Here’s what I mean.

Blue chip stocks tend to raise their dividends every year.… Read more

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