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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

The Dividend Aristocrats, as you may well know, are companies that have increased their annual dividends without interruption for at least 25 years. That speaks to a high level of dependability and stability that even many other blue chips can’t claim.

But boy, can they be stingy.

Aristocrats, Or American Debt? It’s Not Even Close

The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL), which faithfully tracks those payout champions that call the S&P 500 index home, collectively yields 1.7% at the moment, which is an almost laughable amount of current yield. The 10-year Treasury isn’t just beating that – at a roughly 2.9% yield, it’s simply clobbering it.… Read more

With earnings season in the rear-view and the end of the first quarter looming, you’re probably asking yourself one thing right now…

… just how good is the stock market?

I’ll give you the answer (which I think you’ll like) in a moment.

Then I’ll show you 2 funds whose portfolios are packed with familiar stocks, including Apple (AAPL). Both funds are poised for strong gains in 2018 while handing you fat cash payouts up to 8.8%!

Finding Bargains in a Surprising Place

First, if you’re like most folks, you might feel queasy about any stocks—including “reliable” blue chips—after the stomach-churning drops we suffered in February.… Read more

Municipal bonds are off to a slow start in 2018 – which is usually a bullish sign for these tax-free payers.

We last “pounded the table” on munis in December 2016. They were coming off their worst month since the Great Recession, and we discussed their tendency to rally when they are hated:

“It’s impossible to call a top in yields (or bottom in munis) without the benefit of hindsight. But we contrarians make our money buying when nobody else wants to – and the last time munis were this hated, they returned 30-38% over the next 12 months.”

Turns out that was the bottom in munis.… Read more

Ignore the pundits’ petrified bleating over rising interest rates. Sure, the yield on the 10-Year Treasury has spiked to 2.9%, but you’re still not retiring on it!

Look at it this way: if you dropped, say, $500,000 into Treasuries tomorrow, you’d still only get $14,500 in income. That’s just a hair over the poverty line of $14,342 for two people aged 65+ living under one roof.

That’s an insult after a lifetime of hard work!

And it’s exactly why I’m going to show you 3 simple steps you can take to rack up safe dividends that average 6.6% now (and some go well beyond 9.4%).… Read more

The big rebound is on! But don’t worry, your opportunity to grab big gains (and dividends) hasn’t evaporated.

There’s still time!

And you can start with 3 of the 4 funds I pounded the table on back on February 19. At the time, all 4 of these cheap selloff buys were paying a combined 13.4% income stream.

So why are just 3 of these funds still worthy of your attention, only a few weeks later?

I’ll unpack that—and name these 3 top-flight funds—in a moment. First, let’s step back and take a look at what happened in a very wild February, and where it all leaves us now.… Read more

I love nothing more than bargain real estate – especially if I can buy it with a single-click of my mouse (or one tap from my smartphone).

REITs (real estate investment trusts) are as cheap as they’ve been this decade. Prices are low, and yields are high – making this an ideal time to buy.

Unless, of course, their tenants are watching their own business models vanish before their very eyes. If clients can’t pay the rent, then their REIT landlords won’t be able to pay us our dividends.

And if we’re not banking dividends from REITs, then what’s the point?… Read more