Articles

If we can be sure of one thing these days, it’s that millions of investors are fed up with the pathetic 0.7% yields offered by so-called “safe” plays like Treasuries. And the 1.7% dividend that the average S&P 500 stock pays? Nobody’s not retiring on that, either!

So it follows that many more investors will go on the hunt for high, safe dividends in the coming months.

That means a group of 500 big yielders called closed-end funds (CEFs) will draw a lot more interest. The average CEF yields 7.2% now, and the biggest payers yield well into the double digits, like the 14.6%+ yielders we’ll dive into below.… Read more

Are you trying to grind out a livable retirement on dividends alone? It’s possible, and it doesn’t require millions and millions already in the bank. (Even today, with interest rates in the tank.)

However, we must step outside the mainstream to achieve this. After all, why mess around with a standard $15,600 a year in retirement income when we can “supersize” that annual yield haul up to $108,000?

The “standard” $15.6K is what we get listening to mainstream financial advisors and pundits, and buying the vanilla ETFs that they recommend. The latter $108K is what we can achieve with a little bit of original thinking.… Read more

You’ve probably heard of the “4% rule.” It refers to the amount you can safely take out of a portfolio without running out of money in retirement. It even comes with a catchy acronym: SWR, or “safe withdrawal rate.”

This “wisdom” is gospel for many advisors, but it’s completely wrong! Blindly following it could mean staying in the workforce for years, even decades, longer than you have to.

Here are three reasons why you should ignore this myth. Further on, we’ll look at a better option that will hand you rich 7% dividends and price upside, too.

Reason #1: It’s not really 4% anymore

The first reason is that the 4% rule has even been disavowed by its author.… Read more

Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell reiterated his stance that he’s keeping rates at zero for a while. It was no surprise, but it confirms that we’ll continue to ignore US Treasury bonds. They might not pay enough in our lifetimes to warrant our attention ever again!

Instead, we’ll turn our focus to higher paying fixed income vehicles. I’m talking about corporate bonds, convertible bonds and “preferred” stock. They all dish more dividend per dollar than lame T-Bills.

But is this the best time to buy them, with an election just around the corner? It’s a common question, as I’m seeing many subscribers writing in to ask:

Brett, what dividends do we need to Buy/Hold/Sell if X/Y/Z happens in November?… Read more

I know you’re struggling to find cheap stocks to buy these days (or at least stocks that aren’t cheap for a reason!). This pullback is a bit helpful, but not enough for us dividend investors—the average S&P 500 stock yields a pathetic 1.7% as I write this.

That’s nowhere near enough dividend income to retire on, unless you’re sitting on a portfolio $2.5 million or more!

But don’t worry, there are always bargain-priced dividends out there—we just have to go a step beyond what the mainstream crowd is buying. Today I’m going to show you one such investment; it’s my favorite one to buy for big dividends and upside.… Read more

Here’s something most people don’t realize: in the world of high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs), 7% dividends are actually on the smaller side.

While the more conventional ETFs will pay you 3% if you’re lucky, high-yield closed-end funds can pay out a lot more. With an average yield of 7.2%, according to data from my CEF Insider service, CEFs pay much more than the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), which yields a meager 2.7%!

Source: CEF Insider

There are some off-the-beaten path ETFs that do have big yields, like the Global X SuperDividend ETF (SDIV), which pays a shocking 12.3% dividend as I write this.… Read more

What if I told you that, even in this expensive stock market, that we can still find yields of 9%, 10%… heck, even 20%?

Volatility is back, and with it, some discounted stocks with generous yields that we can snag. We’ll talk big dividends up to 20% today.

An S&P 500 index fund, as usual, won’t pay you enough income to retire. You have to buy the pricey basket and hope it’ll keep levitating higher. A purchase of the popular index today and you’ll barely squeeze out $18,000 in dividends by this time next year. That’s not much but it’s downright lavish compared with the $6,700 you’d eke out of a 10-year T-note.… Read more

If there’s one trap I’ve seen investors fall into time and time again, it’s “chasing yield”: getting pulled in by a high dividend yield and not digging deeper to see if that payout is really sustainable.

An asset class that’s collapsed in 2020—and is now on the verge of vanishing completely—is a classic example of the dangers of getting distracted by a high current yield.

The investments in question are called exchange-traded notes (ETNs), some of which held out the promise of mid-double-digit yields. Unfortunately, these funds—which some folks disastrously confuse with their bigger brothers, exchange traded funds (ETFs)—came with a  catch that’s now sending their values to zero.… Read more

Who doesn’t like a safe, stable utility dividend? In today’s zero-rate, VIX-spiking world, it’s a throwback to simpler times—the “old school” type of dividend we’d like to accumulate sufficiently to retire on!

Heck, twenty years ago to this date, we could have bought shares in Southern Company (SO) and enjoyed a 6.5% yield. A $100,000 stake in Southern would have paid $6,500 every year in dividends.

Plus, regular raises were on the way. After a stagnant few years, Southern began hiking its payout every year. That 6.5% yield would eventually grow to a fat 12.4% yield on cost:

Southern’s 20-Year Yield Rise

But wait, there was more.… Read more

Let’s not assume our retirement savings will benefit from the Federal Reserve’s bout of 2020 money printing. Inflation could be a real problem, as soon as 2021. So let’s talk about stocks that are not only protected but likely to benefit from Jay Powell’s prolific “efforts.”

(In other words, dividend stocks that’ll double while investors are fixated on deflation.)

When it comes to inflation, many folks have a dangerous blind spot. They recall 2008, and the Fed’s then-extraordinary actions late that year, which gave us a narrow escape from deflation, and no inflation to speak of.

Just think back to that time.… Read more