Author Archive: Brett Owens

If you’re like most dividend investors, you’re probably keeping one eye on bond yields right now.

And, well, you should be … but only if you own low-yielding (or slow-growing) “bond proxies” like, say, PepsiCo (PEP).

But if you buy (or already own) the 5 “undercover” high yielders I’ll show you at the end of this article, I have great news for you: you can ignore inflation, bond yields and the Fed and simply keep on collecting your fat dividend checks.

Bond Yields: 1, PepsiCo: 0

Before we get to that, back to PepsiCo.

As you probably know, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has risen from 2.3% in early December to more than 2.9% today.… Read more

If you buy a stock that eventually increases its dividend by 100% in the coming years, you’re going to double your money or better as that happens. Find a payout with 200%, 300% or even 500% upside? Then we have a secure way to total returns up to 500%.

(We’ll discuss five generous payers in a minute, with price upside up to 500%.)

Why does dividend growth matter so much more than earnings, sales or even cash flow growth? Well, we income investors buy a stock for one of three reasons:

• A meaningful current yield
• The potential for a higher yield-on-cost over time, and/or
• Price gains.

Do you have a reliable way to generate monthly cash flow from the dividend stocks you own today? If not, why not?

Many “first-level” investors hope that their stocks will go higher so that they can sell them for cash flow. But, if you follow rich people, you’ll notice that they never actually sell any assets – they instead use them to generate more and more cash flow.

We can – and should – do the same. We can “tap” dividend stocks for regular cash flow. We can even turn the shares we own today into monthly dividend payments that provide us all the income we ever need for the rest of our lives (and we can hang onto the shares and enjoy price upside, too!)… Read more

Be careful how you buy your bonds. The most popular tickers have a few “fatal flaws” that’ll doom you to underperformance at best, or leave you hanging in the event of a market meltdown at worst!

Let’s pick on the widely followed and owned iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) as an example. It has attracted nearly $15 billion in assets because:

1. It’s convenient – as easy to buy as a stock.
2. It’s diversified (for better or worse, as we’ll see shortly) with 1,005 individual holdings.
3. It pays – 6% today, to be specific.

The accessibility of funds like HYG appears appears cute and comfortable enough.… Read more

I get a lot of questions from readers about high-paying “preferred shares.” And most of these queries have one thing in common: worry!

You see, many of these folks are concerned that preferreds—known for their outsized dividend yields funded by safe cash flows—will get swamped as interest rates rise.

So today I’m going to show you why you can set these fears aside. Further on, I’ll reveal a preferred-stock fund that lets you rope in an outsized 7.3% cash dividend and price upside, too.

First, I should say that preferred shares aren’t alone in stoking investor fears. Other high-yield investments are, too, such as real estate trusts (REITs) and utilities.… Read more

Do you own the next GE? I’m talking about five dividends that are not as sacred as their shareholders mistakenly believe. We’ll review them in a minute.

First, the warning signs. Many investors were kicked in the gut by General Electric (GE) last year, no thanks to pundits who ignored numerous red flags and encouraged people to buy GE and its historically generous yield. Sure, 5% isn’t “high,” but in a sleepy industrial like General Electric, that’s certainly attractive at a glance.

It also was downright dangerous.

Anyone keeping tabs on the all-important payout ratios for General Electric’s dividend had to see the writing on the wall.… Read more

If you want to clobber the stock market – and double your money every two or three years – then buying companies with accelerating dividends is an absolute must.

And I’ve got good news for you: there’s never been a better time to buy them.

That’s because dividend growth is on a sugar high: research firm IHS Markit recently predicted that global dividends would jump 10% this year—a new record.

What’s more, if you’re looking to grow your nest egg fast, you’re in luck, because accelerating dividends are the beating heart of my personal 3-step system for banking 12% annual returns for life.… Read more

It’s something I hear from readers all the time: “Brett, the 7%+ dividends you recommend in the Contrarian Income Report service are well and good, but are dividends that high really safe to invest in? I’m worried about a dividend cut.”

The answer?

They are absolutely safe—so go ahead and enjoy the outsized cash payouts delivered by our Contrarian Income Report selections, which I’ve carefully chosen and safety-checked to let you retire on a $500k nest egg (and maybe even less).

And for stocks outside of our portfolio, you just need to take a few quick steps to stay off the rocks.… Read more

Most people are chasing big dividend payers right now in this “3% world” we live in. Meanwhile, a small group of “hidden yield” stocks are quietly handing smart investors growing income streams PLUS annual returns of 12%, 17.3%, or more.

Let’s talk about how to find these stocks, and bank 12% returns or better every single year, by following a simple two-step formula.

See, everyone wants dividend stocks with good current yields. It’s easy to scan a newspaper or financial website and pick out the stocks that are paying 3%, 4%, 8% or whatever number you might consider “good.”

Yet that’s NOT the right way to pick dividend stocks.… Read more

Lazy financial writers like to say that higher bond yields will hurt dividend stocks. This blanket statement may sound reasonable, but it’ll cost you money if you take it at face value.

Pundits have called sleepy dividend stocks like General Mills (GIS) “bond proxies” in recent years. GIS has paid 3% (more or less) over the last three years. That compared favorably with the 10-year note, which paid 2% (more or less) over that time period.

So, the story goes, investors had been buying stocks like GIS instead of safe bonds like Treasuries to scrape an extra 1% or so. But with Treasuries rallying to 3%, these same investors have “demanded” a higher yield from GIS.… Read more