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Are we having fun yet, my fellow income investor?

We’re now in a bear market, whether the financial media or our intrepid politicians admit it or not. Peak to trough the S&P 500 dropped 21% intraday. Based on closing prices the decline was “only” 18%, however—not quite the technical 20% drop that defines a bear market.

Regardless, let’s not split hairs and call this what it is—the third bear market of the 2020s. Three bears. And it’s only 2025!

You may be wondering, as I was, if this is normal. It is not, my friend. Since 1900 we have averaged 1.77 bear markets per decade.… Read more

In the run-up to the reversal of many of President Trump’s tariffs, we saw some true panic selling that turned into what can only be called panic buying: Investors eager to get back in as they realized the selloff was a buying opportunity.

And to no one’s surprise, tariff-related market drama has continued since then.

Last Wednesday’s bounce happened so fast I couldn’t get my response to the selloff published in time. Earlier last week I wrote, “Fortunately, this situation will not last forever. Stocks will ultimately recover their losses from this last week.” Then stocks did recover before those words could get published!… Read more

The powers that be are playing a high-stakes game of “tariff roulette”—and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to put my life savings on the table here!

But we’re not among the crowd bailing on stocks, either.

No way. We’re retirees (or aspiring retirees!) and we demand income. So instead, we’re going to look to “tariff-proof” (or “recession-proof,” if you think this trade war is sending us there) our portfolio. And we’re going to do it while cutting our tax bill, too.

Our timing is right here, because the jump in 10-year Treasury rates we’ve seen since the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement has given us a window to secure one of my favorite tax-free 8.4% payers at a “double discount.”… Read more

Although some tariff hikes have been paused, a recession is still very much in play.

Just a few days ago, I wrote that “this is the time to recession-proof our retirement holdings.” And why not? GDP estimates have tanked. So has consumer sentiment.

Goldman Sachs made headlines for raising its probability of recession (from 20% to 35%). Fine, but equity analysts often get caught up in crowds.

What was more striking was hearing a similar message from the debt watchers. Consider this post from Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics’ chief economist:

In my previous post, I showed readers how to recession-proof their portfolio with municipal debt.… Read more

The pullback we’ve seen in the last week calls to mind the last big selloff we saw—in 2022.

That’s what I want to draw your attention to today (but only for a moment!). Because the 2022 experience still has a lot to tell us about how markets really view the possibility of a recession. Along with that, a quick look back can also help us develop our strategy for investing in 8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) from here.

Back then, the fear was that a combination of inflation and recession would cause stocks to plunge. And plunge they did. In fact, the market gave up on everything.… Read more

“Americans prepping for retirement aren’t watching the markets,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday.

Scotty, please. At least try to pretend you have some connection with reality.

Sure, we income investors have it better than most hopeful and current retirees. We do not rely on stock prices for income, per se. Our dividend portfolios provide us with cash flow that we use to pay our bills.

Imagine living by the “4% withdrawal rule” right now, selling 4% of our stocks every year, hoping we don’t run out of money—while the S&P 500 is dropping 4% every day as Wall Street battens down the hatches for a global recession or worse?… Read more

There aren’t a lot of things we can say for certain these days, but there is one: We dividend investors are far better off than the mainstream crowd!

Consider the unlucky souls who hold “America’s ticker”—my name for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY). I call it that because, well, pretty well everyone owns it (it’s okay if you have SPY hiding somewhere in your portfolio—we don’t judge!)

These poor folks have taken the brunt of the market crash—and they’re getting “paid” a mere 1.4% for the pleasure.

Our Dividend Picks Are Built for Trying Times 

We contrarian dividend investors, meantime, know the value of high, safe payouts.… Read more

I often talk about high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) that are great buys because, well, there are plenty of CEFs that are. Yes, even in unprecedented times like these!

That’s because the best CEFs offer three things we love:

• Big dividends, with an average yield of 7.8% across the asset class.

• Bargain valuations, with average discounts to net asset value (NAV, or the value of a CEF’s underlying portfolio) of 5%.
  
  And how’s this for a stat …

• Proven performance, with 94% of CEFs posting positive returns (with dividends reinvested) over the last decade. Ninety. Four. Percent.

Still, every once in a while, a CEF comes across my desk that’s an obvious one to sell (or avoid if you don’t already hold it).… Read more

The only thing I love more than dividends is dividend growth. And ‘tis the season for payout raises as  first-quarter earnings season kicks into gear.

I have my eye on companies that have recently announced dividend hikes of 28%, 52%, even 150%. If we get similar dividend growth this time around, great—more money in our pockets. But just as important is the confidence they’d be communicating with big raises amid an extremely uncertain economic environment.

Regular readers know about my “Dividend Magnet” strategy—three signs that can lead to massive price gains. The most important sign is dividend growth, which is management’s way of saying “We’re growing profits, and we know those profits are going to stick!”… Read more

Most indicators are misleading investors right now, with some looking rosy and others seemingly saying it’s time to panic.

So today we’re going to parse through the noise and look at what’s really going on under the hood of the US economy.

Then I’m going to give you our latest “CEF Insider intel” on what to do with stocks—and funds (specifically closed-end funds) that hold them. We’re also going to dig into one bond fund yielding an outsized 13% that’s set to benefit as uncertainty grows.

Investor “Mood Ring” Says It’s Time to Panic …

Consider the CNN Fear & Greed index, a closely watched sentiment indicator.… Read more