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Today I’m going to show you a proven way to collect $5,310 in cash, on average, every month—without buying a single stock, bond or fund.

In fact, you won’t have to buy anything at all. (I’ll show you precisely how this works in a moment.)

That amounts to a nice $63,720-a-year income stream, easily enough for you to retire on pretty well anywhere in America. And if you pick one of the cheapest corners of the country (like Indianapolis, say, where the cost of living is 16% below the national average), it’s a fortune!

Beyond the Obvious

This breakthrough strategy is certainly way better than trying to squeak by on the pathetic 1.75% your typical S&P 500 stock pays.… Read more

Have real estate investment trusts (REITs) finally “decoupled” from rising interest rates? In other words, has the popular (but untrue) “rates up, REITs down” reasoning been busted (again)?

For those of us who have been waiting for the stock market’s landlords to carve out a bottom before buying anything new, we may be back in business:

REITs Finally Rising with Rates?

Regular readers know that the best REITs do just fine as rates rise. That’s been the case historically, and they’ll rally again this time around.

Why? Because elite landlords simply keep raising their rents.  These higher cash flows translate to higher dividends, and higher stock prices, regardless of what the Fed is up to.… Read more

When investors look for dividends, they usually think about blue-chip names that are just as common on Main Street as they are on Wall Street. However, there are a large number of single-digit stocks flying under the market’s radar that also offer attractive yields.

Individual investors tend to gravitate toward stocks trading under $10 for multiple reasons. For one, it can psychologically feel more powerful to buy 100 shares of a company trading for $8 than just eight shares of a $100 name.

While both investments are just as likely to generate attractive returns over time, low-dollar stocks have historically proven to be more volatile.… Read more

One of the most reliable income-producing sectors has been hit hard over the past year, handing you a terrific shot at outsized dividend yields running all the way up to 10%.

In a moment, I’ll show you two funds that let you grab these huge income streams at a big discount—and one that looks like a strong buy but is way overpriced and headed for a fall. You’ll want to keep that one as far away from your portfolio as possible.

The sector all three of these picks come from is utilities—one of only two sectors of the S&P 500 that’s down over the past year (the other being consumer staples), with a 2.6% overall decline.… Read more

Market gyrations don’t matter when you can generate $63,720 over the next 12 months on a capital base as modest as $350,000. The secret? Monthly cash flow that adds up to 20% average annual returns regardless of what stocks do.

It’s an income investors’ dream – banking regular payments without having to worry about a pullback for the pricey (and increasingly wobbly) stock market.

“Buy and hope” investors are, understandably, terrified today. They’ve bought their shares – and now all they can do is hope the aging bull market keeps climbing higher.

We income investors prefer to calculate rather than gamble.… Read more

Subscribers to my Contrarian Income Report have enjoyed safe yields of 7% or more over time – and enjoyed long-term price stability – thanks to two simple principles:

1. Buy stocks and funds when they’re out of favor. That way, prices are lower and yields are higher when we make our purchase.
2. Rely on dividends alone for income. That way, ups and downs in the stock price won’t cripple their usefulness to a retirement portfolio. In fact, we use them in our favor.

2018 hasn’t exactly been up to snuff. Most market experts expected the Trump tax cuts, breakneck economic growth and fat corporate earnings to shoot the market to the moon.… Read more

If you want high dividends right now (and who doesn’t?), but you don’t want to overpay, there’s one place you need to look: utilities.

There are three ways to tap into this sector, but only one hands you the most upside and fattest dividend yields from these unloved cash-spinning companies:

1. Buy utility stocks individually
2. Buy ETFs specializing in utilities
3. Buy closed-end funds (CEFs) specializing in utilities

The third option is the best one. To understand why, we need to go back a few months.

Back on March 1, I recommended Reaves Utility Income (UTG), a utility CEF that yields 6.9% (spoiler: those big yields are common with CEFs and are a big reason why these funds are an awesome bet for income investors).… Read more

If you’ve held off on bank stocks for the last few months, I have good and bad news for you.

The good? You’ve still got time to get in before the banks take off on their next surge.

The bad? After the big profits this hated sector has posted in the last couple weeks, your window is closing fast!

So today we’re going to look at why 5 of the 6 biggest US banks look strong now … but being the dividend hounds we are, we’re not going to buy “regular” bank stocks, with their pathetic sub-2% dividend yields.

No way.… Read more

One of the best characteristics about dividends is they usually offer a consistent, preferably growing stream of income. However, investors can easily fall into the trap of becoming complacent that future payments will continue to flow in, even when the business isn’t generating enough cash to fund the dividend.

The higher the yield being offered generally means the riskier the dividend is and sometimes losses can outweigh the expected income. For example, Dynagas LNG Partners (DLNG) cut its 16% yield back in April and shares are down 25% since.

With government bonds paying around 2% to 3%, dividends above 10% need to be scrutinized closely and I’ve identified two that are in danger of disappearing.… Read more

I’ve been thinking a lot about recessions lately.

It’s pretty hard not to, because warnings about recessions are coming from financial pundits and big banks with increasing frequency. Most recently, an economist at Citigroup warned in a research note that a recession was likely to come in the next 18 months, because the US Treasury yield curve is flattening.

This person isn’t a lone wolf.

Many economists, including a lot of wonks at the Federal Reserve, are fiercely debating whether our flattening yield curve is a sign that a recession is around the corner. And the fear is intensifying, since the difference between the yield on the two-year and 10-year Treasuries is a meager 25 basis points, the narrowest in over a decade.… Read more