Author Archive: Michael Foster

Still feeling the taxman’s sting from April? Then you probably need to consider getting some tax-free income.

Having an income stream the IRS can’t touch may sound like pie in the sky, but it’s a reality if you hold municipal bonds. That’s because the tax code provides an exclusion for these bonds, allowing most US investors to collect interest payments from them tax-free. And in many states, income from those bonds is exempt from state taxes, as well.

If you aren’t intrigued yet, then let me show you some numbers—and what they could mean to your portfolio.

If you’re in the highest tax bracket (37%) and you get a 6%-yielding municipal-bond fund, that income is the exact same as a 9.5% dividend from stocks.… Read more

It’s here again: another stock downturn.

But don’t worry, because today I’m going to show you a “1-click” way to profit from it (and collect a nice 6.8% dividend while you do).

The key? Dipping into an out-of-favor sector that outperforms when the market gets fearful. I’m talking about consumer staples, which is down a whopping 9.4% in 2018, far below every other sector in the S&P 500.

Consumer Staples Swoons

Usually, when volatility picks up, consumer staples outperform consumer-discretionary stocks. Yet that didn’t happen from February to April, when the market first began to tumble, and it isn’t happening now that the market is beginning to fall again.… Read more

If you’ve been holding cash and waiting for the perfect buying opportunity, your time to strike is now.

Because a very predictable market pattern has been repeating itself in the last few months—and is about to do so again.

Let’s recap.

First, there was the euphoria of January, followed by the panic selling of February and March, followed by renewed confidence in April, May and early June. But then, just a couple weeks ago, the market went back to panic mode. The reason is familiar: the looming trade war.

Back in February and March, President Trump threatened tariffs on goods from China, the EU and even Canada.… Read more

With over 500 closed-end funds (CEFs) on the market, how do you choose the best one?

It’s not an easy question to answer, because there are literally dozens of metrics any CEF investor should look at before buying.

But you don’t have to worry, because in a moment, you’re going to get the “guts” of the 5-point system I’ve carefully designed to pick winning CEFs for our CEF Insider service.

So why is it important to have a good system?

Because if you don’t, you could find yourself holding an empty bag—like investors who bought the Virtus Total Return Fund (ZF) at the start of the year because they were seduced by its 15.3% dividend yield.… Read more

Cash payouts of 8% and more (often paid monthly), plus price upside of 10%, 20%, sometimes even higher.

That’s what you get with closed-end funds—and you can often get it in just one buy!

But as terrific as these off-the-radar funds are, you still need to be careful: of the 500 or so CEFs available to us, only a handful are worth your attention. Others give you mediocre returns, at best. And some can drain away your cash fast!

And in a year that’s been challenging for just about all asset classes, the worst CEFs are showing their stripes, with the real laggards down double digits, and for good reason—their portfolios (as measured by net asset value, or NAV) can’t generate the performance they need to push their share prices higher.… Read more

If you’ve filled up your car lately, I don’t have to tell you that oil prices have come back to life after years in the doldrums.

So today I’m going to give you 3 terrific funds that let you take back the power. Each one pays 6.5%+ dividends and is set to pack big price gains as oil resumes its rise (and it will).

An Income Gusher Where No One Bothers to Look

It’s rare to hear the words “oil” and “6.5%+ dividends” in the same sentence. The truth is, many energy stocks don’t give investors an income stream, while a lot of energy funds are fundamentally flawed.… Read more

By now you may have heard about the huge dividends and soaring price gains offered by closed-end funds (CEFs).

But here’s something that will probably surprise you: you can lock in even bigger—and safer—income streams (I’m talking 7%+ dividends), plus massive upside with smaller CEFs.

I know that sounds counterintuitive, and quite the opposite of what happens with stocks; small-cap companies rarely pay dividends and can collapse overnight.

Go Big the Small Way

The key is to go with small CEFs sporting portfolios backstopped by large cap stocks and whip-smart management teams, like the 3 funds (paying up to 10.1% in cash each) I’ll show you in a moment.… Read more

The stock market has just started recovering from its early-February lows—and there are 3 ridiculously cheap funds set to jump even higher while paying massive dividends.

Before I show them to you, let’s talk a bit about why the market is set to go higher.

Right now, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 4.8% for 2018, but more importantly, it’s still off its 2018 high, reached in early January—and it’s only started to show signs of consistent recovery from February’s low in the last few weeks:

A Steadying Market

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the most important happened in April—just at the start of the upward move in stocks in the chart above.… Read more

When it comes to investing, too many folks ignore the signal and listen to the noise.

Case in point: one of the biggest stories of 2018—a looming trade war between America and China. Lately, the story has mutated into one about a trade war between America and, well, just about everyone—Europe, Asia, Mexico, even Canada!

But this trade war is noise—2018 has been a great year for stocks, and it’s going to get even better. Further on, I’ll give you a couple great ways to cash in.

First, a look at the facts, which are plain for everyone to see … and they clearly prove the naysayers wrong.… Read more

I don’t want to alarm you, but if you’ve got a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines right now, you’re about to miss out on a double-digit stock-market gain in the next 6 months.

In a moment, I’ll show you 5 funds you can buy today to lock in these quick, life-changing profits (and dividend payouts, too). To make it even easier for you, I’ve ranked these 5 popular buys from worst to first.

But first, let me tell you what I’m basing this bold prediction on. The story starts in early February of this year.

You no doubt recall those wild days: after a sharp run-up in stocks in January, which itself was on the heels of a 23% gain for the S&P 500 in 2017, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) suddenly did this:

A Nosedive

Panic was in the air—so much so that I was getting calls from worried family and friends asking me what was causing the selloff and what it meant for their retirements (I wrote about that in this article).… Read more