Author Archive: Brett Owens

Moe Ansari, host of the popular Market Wrap radio show and podcast, asked me on air:

“Brett, how do you find dividend paying stocks that will double your money?”

He was intrigued enough by my analysis to ask me on his show, but I knew he was a bit skeptical as well. And that’s perfectly normal – even experienced investors and money managers like Moe think of dividend payers in terms of their current yields only.

Price appreciation potential often gets ignored, and the thought of achieving 100%+ profits from a safe dividend payer sounds absurd. But smart investors bank their payouts while their stocks double in price.… Read more

First-level investors are at it again, crowing that now is a great time to give the vaunted Dividend Aristocrats another look.

(You’ve probably heard of these darlings of the income world: they’re the 53 stocks that have hiked their dividends for 25 straight years or more.)

Desperate for a Deal

So why is now supposedly a great time to buy these payout poster boys?

Because according to a recent Barron’s article, the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL), the passive fund that holds all 53 of these stocks, is trading at 18.1 times forecast earnings for this fiscal year. That’s below the average of 18.8 over the last three years.… Read more

The average yield among the 25 largest dividend exchange-traded funds is a meager 2.7% right now. That means if you plunked a $1 million on ETFs dedicated to dividend stocks, you’d only make $27,000 every year.

That’s barely higher than the 2018 federal poverty level for a family of four ($25,100)!

But you and I can do better – by double, even triple! I’m talking about turning these lame 2.7% payouts into fat dividends of 7.2% or more.

Serious yield hunters gravitate toward closed-end funds, where it’s common to find distributions of 7.2% or even higher! A retirement income of $72,000, after all, is a lot cushier than scraping by on $27,000 annually.… Read more

If you’re looking for tax-free yields, municipal (“muni”) bonds can provide you with 5%+ distributions that Uncle Sam won’t touch. With rates rising, it is a bit tricky to make savvy buying decisions at the moment. But income investors buying smartly today are banking 5%+ yields – and paying as little as 88 cents on the dollar!

For quick profits, it’s best to buy munis after mini-panics. They seem to happen every year or two, presenting us levelheaded contrarians with safe yields for cheap. (Most recently, readers who followed my advice and bought munis after an irrational “tax plan panic” enjoyed total returns up to 16.7% in just 12 months!)… Read more

Once again, almost everyone has gotten sucked in by a tired investor slogan that’s dead wrong—and it’s costing them big gains (and income).

But that’s good news for contrarians like us, because we can bank some easy profits thanks to this all-too-predictable reflex.

That’s especially true now that the Federal Reserve has sent out a blaringly obvious signal that it’s stuck to its rate-hike track, calling the economy “strong” after its latest meeting last week.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before I go further, the shopworn myth I’m talking about is that REITs nosedive when interest rates rise.

Many folks just can’t be talked out of it, despite all evidence to the contrary, including the fact that REITs skyrocketed during the last sustained rising-rate cycle, in 2004–06.… Read more

What do most exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and many blue-chip stocks have in common?

They’re big, they’re popular with Wall Street pundits … and they don’t deliver nearly as much income as investors need to retire.

Not even close.

I want to share some ugly and eye-opening numbers with you about the skinflint ETF industry. I recently dug into the 100 most popular funds by assets under management, and here’s what I found:

• Just one of those 100 funds yields more than 7.7% – my threshold for a truly retirement-sustaining holding.
• Only about a dozen of those funds yield more than 3%.

I was not supposed to be sharing my favorite income strategy (for weekly payouts) with you today. But I convinced my publisher to make an exception – so please take advantage of his rare act of leniency and read this carefully today.

As you probably know I’m the rare “income guy” who thinks that these “elevated” Treasury yields are still a joke. As I write, the 10-year IOU from Uncle Sam is rallying back towards 3%. Is anyone who is not already rich retiring off of these yields?

A 3% yield on a $1 million portfolio generates just $30,000 per year before taxes.… Read more

Today I’m going to show you a proven way to collect $5,310 in cash, on average, every month—without buying a single stock, bond or fund.

In fact, you won’t have to buy anything at all. (I’ll show you precisely how this works in a moment.)

That amounts to a nice $63,720-a-year income stream, easily enough for you to retire on pretty well anywhere in America. And if you pick one of the cheapest corners of the country (like Indianapolis, say, where the cost of living is 16% below the national average), it’s a fortune!

Beyond the Obvious

This breakthrough strategy is certainly way better than trying to squeak by on the pathetic 1.75% your typical S&P 500 stock pays.… Read more

Have real estate investment trusts (REITs) finally “decoupled” from rising interest rates? In other words, has the popular (but untrue) “rates up, REITs down” reasoning been busted (again)?

For those of us who have been waiting for the stock market’s landlords to carve out a bottom before buying anything new, we may be back in business:

REITs Finally Rising with Rates?

Regular readers know that the best REITs do just fine as rates rise. That’s been the case historically, and they’ll rally again this time around.

Why? Because elite landlords simply keep raising their rents.  These higher cash flows translate to higher dividends, and higher stock prices, regardless of what the Fed is up to.… Read more

Market gyrations don’t matter when you can generate $63,720 over the next 12 months on a capital base as modest as $350,000. The secret? Monthly cash flow that adds up to 20% average annual returns regardless of what stocks do.

It’s an income investors’ dream – banking regular payments without having to worry about a pullback for the pricey (and increasingly wobbly) stock market.

“Buy and hope” investors are, understandably, terrified today. They’ve bought their shares – and now all they can do is hope the aging bull market keeps climbing higher.

We income investors prefer to calculate rather than gamble.… Read more