Author Archive: Michael Foster

There’s a way for us dividend investors to tap the news of a COVID-19 vaccine for huge payouts of 10% and up. And we’ll position our portfolios for serious price upside, too.

I know the vaccine news has a bit of a “horse is out of the barn” feel to it. After all, the market and shares of the vaccine’s producer, Pfizer (PFE), have already popped (though the rally has taken a bit of a breather lately). But you’re not too late. With the three investments I’ll show you below, you could grab healthcare dividends much bigger than the 3.9% Pfizer pays now.… Read more

If there’s one thing you can be sure of in investing, it’s this: alarmists—whether they’re bulls or bears—almost never get it right. And playing the contrarian angle is a great way to grab big gains and 7%+ dividends.

Think back to the days before the election: brokerages were warning of unprecedented volatility following the big day. I heard from some investors who sold most of their holdings right before voters went to the polls, terrified that uncertainty over the results would cause a crash.

Then something weird happened. The election ended, the result was close—and stocks surged.

Close Race = Big Gains

Why did everyone get it wrong?… Read more

I sure hope you didn’t listen to the nervous Nellies who told you to pull your cash out of stocks ahead of the election. Since October 30, the S&P 500 has jumped more than 5%, as of this writing.

And remember tech stocks, the sector everyone seemed to be leaving for dead a few days ago? They’re up nearly 7%, going by the tech benchmark Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ).

2020 Pulls a Fast One on Panic Sellers (Again!)

This is particularly painful if you’re a dividend investor. If you sold just a few days ago, you’re now forced to buy back in at higher prices—and lower yields!… Read more

Tech has taken a punch in the face this past few weeks—prompting many readers to wonder if it’s time to sell after booking some big gains in the sector this year.

No way. We’re dividend investors first and contrarians second, so we’re going to take the other side of that bet and buy this tech “mini-dip.” We’ll do it with closed-end funds (CEFs) yielding 7% (and more) that also give us a unique “double discount” to hedge any downside we might see in the coming months (this is 2020, after all) and a good shot at outperforming tech and the broader market, too.… Read more

They’re here again: more articles warning us of the “dangers” of municipal bonds. Don’t take the bait, because these wrongheaded articles will steer you away from some of the safest (and highest) dividends out there.

One claim you’ll read in many of these pieces is that states are losing tax revenue, which could mean they’re gong to default on their debt or go bankrupt. In reality, municipal-bond bankruptcies are really rare.

And I mean really rare: since 1970, the municipal-bond default rate has been 0.0043%, according to Moody’s Investor Services. To put that in perspective, the CDC says your chance of getting hit by lightning is 0.0002%.… Read more

I really hope you’re not following the antiquated “4% rule”—which says you should withdraw 4% of your nest egg (and no more!)—in retirement. Because if you are, you’re staying in the workforce way longer than you need to.

In fact, you may already be financially independent and not even know it!

Today we’re going to look at why this theory could needlessly delay your retirement (in the words of the 4% rule’s author himself!).

I’ll also show you an easy way to grab almost twice as much from your retirement nest egg in every one of your golden years—I’m talking 7% easy here—and go one step further: live on dividends alone.… Read more

Four years ago, I published an article detailing how a young upper-middle-class professional could quit working and still survive on dividends alone in just five years. It was a claim that many folks thought was impossible to achieve (and they told me so in the comments!).

But history has proven that, in fact, it was true.

Today I want to show you how following the advice I gave back then would have produced financial independence (or an income stream that could cover basic needs) in just five years—and how you can replicate that same success today.

How It Works

Back then, I made three arguments:

1. A young professional earning $70,000 a year and, being very disciplined, managed to save about two-thirds of that income, could use the stock market to build a substantial nest egg in half a decade.

It’s the most common rule in investing: if you want to cut your risk (and protect your dividends!), you need to diversify.

Yes, we’ve all heard it before, but what most people don’t get is just how much you can damage your finances by not sticking with it—or, conversely, how much you can reap in gains (and safe dividends) by following a smart diversification strategy.

From $0 to $1 Million in Assets … and Back to $0

I’ve seen this play out firsthand; a friend was an early employee at a social media startup that got a big investment from a tech billionaire.… Read more

If you have $100,000 to invest, you can easily use it to unleash a dividend stream that pays you $940 a month. That’s $11,280 a year in dividends—on just $100K!

I know you’re probably thinking this sounds too good to be true (and you should be!), especially when 10-year Treasuries dribble out just 0.7%, and the typical S&P 500 stock isn’t much better, with a 1.7% yield.

You’re not retiring on either one of those meager payouts!

But $100,000 invested in a fund with an 11.3% dividend yield (like the one we’ll dive into below) gives you a good start toward clocking out, and on a modest nest egg, too.… Read more

These days, you can be forgiven for thinking a wave of bankruptcies is going to hit your portfolio (and your dividends!). But there’s no need to worry: this so-called “wave” is way overhyped—in fact, it could send your portfolio higher.

It’s just one more upside-down thing we investors have to deal with in this crisis.

And get this: you could line yourself up for triple-digit returns (and 8%+ dividends!) if you tap into investors’ (overwrought) bankruptcy fears through a corporate-bond-focused closed-end fund (CEF). I’ll have a ticker (paying a monthly dividend yielding 9.2%) in a moment.

First, let’s dispel one myth: that COVID-19 is behind all the bankruptcies we’re hearing about these days.… Read more