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The Fed funds rate is 0.25% higher now than it was this time last week. What does this mean for our income investments – especially our monthly dividend payers?

We’ll explore in a minute. First, let’s allow ourselves a moment to appreciate the attractiveness of meaningful monthly distributions.

Our bills arrive every 30 days. But most stocks only pay their dividends every 90. So why don’t we bridge the gap and line up our income with our expenses?

Electricity bill? No problem – got an emerging market bond distribution to cover that.

Cable? No hurry to cut the cord (and risk live sports) when we have a REIT stock that covers this month’s bill.… Read more

A few weeks back, I revealed my proven 3-step process for a “do-it-yourself” 10% dividend yield.

I’ll sum it up for you in 5 words: buy stocks with “accelerating” dividends. That is, payouts that grow faster and faster every year.

It’s a double win!

Take Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCL), a stock I focused on in a March 6 article (and still like today). Plenty of dividend investors look at RCL’s current dividend yield—a meager 2.0%—shrug and walk away.

Terrible move!

I’ll show you why in 2 charts … well, make that one chart with 2 different layers.

Let’s start with this one:

“Accelerating” Payout Drives a 500% Income Boost!… Read more

Today I’m going to show you 4 funds that, when put together, give you a juicy 7.2% dividend yield.

And that’s just the start. In addition to giving you $595 per month in income for every $100,000 invested, this “instant” 4-fund portfolio gives you diversification that limits your risk of losing cash in a market downturn.

Oh, and there is capital gains upside here for you, too.

The reason for that upside is that all of these funds are trading at a pretty big discount to their net asset value (NAV).

Let me explain.

Each of these picks is a “closed-end fund,” a unique type of fund that has a few key advantages over more familiar mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.… Read more

One down, two to go.

The Federal Reserve launched yet another interest-rate hike after its mid-March policy meeting – the sixth such increase since December 2016, and what the Fed anticipates will be the first of three this year. Predictably, a certain subset of the market shuddered in response: lazy, low-growth dividend stocks. But at the same time, shareholders of a few other stocks quietly celebrated what should be a win for the years ahead.

Today, I want to highlight both types: The Fed-proof, and the Fed-frightened.

2018 isn’t shaping up to be a bad year for dividend growth, but it’s not a particularly good one.… Read more

If you’re planning to retire (or are currently retired), I urge you to become intimately familiar with monthly dividend stocks. They offer the ultimate consideration: income payments that actually line up with your monthly bills.

Today, I’m going to help get you started by introducing you to four monthly dividend payers that yield up to 12%. But first: What’s so great about this type of stock?

When you pay your bills – be it the mortgage, the electricity, the TV – you don’t sit down at the kitchen table to do that every quarter. You do it every single month.… Read more

Inflation fever is back! And today I’m going to show you a “one-click” way to cash in with a quick gain and a 7.7% cash dividend too.

First, you may have been under the impression that inflation was off the list of worries for now, since February’s fretting over rising prices sent the market into full swan dive mode:

Inflation Terror Sideswipes Stocks

But March brought us a nice surprise: inflation is not as bad as previously thought. When it comes to one measure of inflation known as “personal consumption expenditure,” or PCE, we are still seeing price gains far below 2%:

Prices Rising, But Still Below Critical Level

But now the herd is an uproar again—and it has everything to do with the “inverted yield curve.”… Read more

Last month, I handpicked a four-pack of dividend growers for a select group of subscribers. On the surface, our February mini-portfolio had an impressive pedigree. It yielded 2.2% annually and boasted 21% dividend growth.

But I was challenged with a task taller than simply buying and hoping for gains. These readers not only wanted their dividends – they wanted them paid monthly!

And they weren’t going to settle for 0.2% per month. No, they demanded meaningful monthly income on a modest portfolio. (I’ll use $500,000 for our real-life example – but you don’t need this much to employ this strategy. A $50,000 stake will work just as well.)… Read more

Worried that President Trump’s tariff threats will ignite a disastrous trade war?

I have great news for you, because the best way to protect your portfolio—and profit—in times like these is simple: buy dividend-growth stocks.

I’ll name three with exploding payouts in a second. All three are also proven winners when tariff threats start flying, making them smart buys now.

Taken together, this “Trump trade trio” boasts an average current dividend yield far higher than what your typical S&P 500 stock pays. Plus all three have double- (and in some cases triple-) digit dividend hikes powering them, too!

Payout growth like that is proven to throw an updraft under share prices when the markets get skittish due to any kind of worry: trade spats, terrorist attacks, wars—you name it.… Read more

One of the greatest things about closed-end funds (CEFs) is that they often cost less than they’re really worth.

And no, I’m not basing that on some obscure metric—I’m literally talking about the difference between the market price of the assets the fund owns and the market price of the fund itself.

It works like this: a CEF can trade for, say, $9.90, even though all the assets the fund holds (known as the net asset value, or NAV) are worth $10. Believe it or not, this happens a lot—it’s exactly how billionaire investors make big money in CEFs.

Take, for instance, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital Management.… Read more

If the virtues and importance of dividend growth weren’t etched into your brain already, let’s consider February’s example. (Then we’ll outline ten imminent hikes coming in April.)

About a month ago, shortly before the market reached full correction mode, I outlined the problem low-growth dividend stocks would have against rapidly rising Treasury rates – and why it’s vital that we monitor the dividend growth of current and prospective holdings.

Within a week, yields quickly leapt to nearly 3%, and currently sit close by at about 2.9%. On cue stocks crashed:

The lesson here is twofold.

For one, if interest rates continue to climb, life becomes more difficult for corporations across the board.… Read more