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Closed-end funds (CEFs) are ready to climb after a two-month decline. In preparation for this pop, select vanilla investors are buying this 11.1% dividend with its 14% downside.

Wait, what?!

Everyone hates bonds today. Yet, somehow, these bonds are selling for $1.14 on the dollar.

I sure wouldn’t do it. I’d favor the fixed income that everyone hates. (More on these discounted dividends in a moment.)

Who is this “I’ll pay a premium” belle of the basic income ball? Convertible bonds. Convertibles pay regular interest. In this way, they act like bonds. You buy them and “lock in” regular coupon payments.… Read more

Look, this deglobalization trend is hitting high gear—and if you miss your chance to tap it for surging dividend payouts, you will regret it down the road.

After all, it’s megatrends like this one that we contrarian income-seekers live for. Let the “basic” investors sweat headline-driven fears like rising rates and recessions. We’ll happily lock in our “megatrend” dividends and ride along for years, and even decades, as our payouts soar triple-digits!

Really, terms like “deglobalization,” “onshoring” and “friendshoring” are just fancy ways of talking about the flow of manufacturing jobs back to the US, or to US neighbors like Canada and Mexico, from basket cases like Xi’s China.… Read more

I hate to see investors get snared by so-called “rules of thumb” like the 4% rule (which we’ve debunked here on Contrarian Outlook many times before).

The trouble is, these rules only “work” until they don’t. And blindly following them through an unexpected market turn could lead you to investment losses, or to run out of money in retirement.

Heck, some don’t even have a germ of truth to them, like the “100 minus your age” rule, which says you should subtract your age from 100, and that’s how much of your portfolio you should dedicate to stocks. So if you’re 30 years old, 70% should go into stocks and 30% into bonds.… Read more

This entire market meltdown has been based off of a flawed premise. We income investors must take advantage of it, before sanity returns to the markets.

The 10-year Treasury yield soared above 5%. On its journey to the stars the higher 10-year has clipped equities severely along the way. A high benchmark rate upsets every applecart in finance.

But here’s the thing. This is not a sustainable move.

Inflation isn’t really in a spiral higher. In fact, it’s the opposite. Core PCE (personal consumer expenditures)—the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation—is dropping like a rock:

Fed’s Preferred Inflation Measure is Dropping Fast

Note, this excludes food and energy prices.… Read more

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No, I’m not talking about Dickensian London—I’m talking about the mood among investors in our favorite high-yield investments, closed-end funds (CEFs), these days.

Those of us who know what to look for in CEFs are finding a rich hunting ground of big dividends. Yields are up—our CEF Insider portfolio yields an average of 10.2% today—and we’re in a good position to book longer-term profits due to the big discounts still available. (We can thank the cautious folks who invest in CEFs for that—they’ve been slower to buy back in after the 2022 pullback, due to alarmist media headlines.)… Read more

If you don’t like these 10% and 12% dividends, well, you’re not really an income investor.

That’s right. As I write, select closed-end funds (CEFs) yield 12.8%.

Twelve. Point. Eight. Per. Cent!

Vanilla “investors” are panicking. Sentiment has hit washout levels. A short-term bottom is near, or perhaps already in.

We contrarians are staying calm and locking in the 10% and 12% yields. When the market seas become choppy, we stick to our script. Here it is, broken down in a 11-step playbook for these 10.1% to 12.8% yields.

CEF Rule #1: Buy the Best 

Fixed-income behemoth DoubleLine runs some well-known big funds as well as smaller, lesser-known CEFs.… Read more

Do not miss these huge dividend yields we’re seeing today. In a year or two, you’re going to kick yourself for not locking these income streams in.

Take it from me. This bond guy nearly missed the great home refi opportunity of 2020-21. Fortunately, I managed to wake up and lock in a 2%+ mortgage before rates skyrocketed. Today, 30-year mortgage rates sit at 8%. Eight percent!

I mention that only because we have a similar setup in dividends today. In a moment, we’re going to discuss an elite dividend paying 8.5%. Let’s not miss it!

From Mortgage Refis to “Dividend Refis”

Here’s the upshot: the same trend that delivered that sweet refi opportunity three years ago is driving our dividend opportunity today—just in reverse.… Read more

The hardest part of convincing folks they can lock in high dividends for the long haul (I’m talking 9%+ yields here) is that many just don’t believe it.

And frankly, I can’t blame them. Too many people are paid a lot of money to tell investors that yields like that are impossible. But the truth is you can get a 9.5% yield today—and even more. But even at 9.5%, we’re talking about a middle-class income of $4,000 per month on an investment of just a touch over $500K.

Source: CEF Insider

Below, I’ll reveal how to start building a portfolio that could get you an even bigger income stream than this today.… Read more

Let’s talk income investments that are usually reserved for rich folks: deal-making private-equity (PE) funds!

Usually there’s a sizable fee to get into PE. Unless you know the secret knock at the back-door entrance, which is more our style anyway.

I’m talking about yields from 7% all the way up to 11%. With a cover charge as low as $15!

These business development companies (BDCs) exist thanks to a perfectly legal loophole that lets anyone with an IRA or brokerage account tap into not just one or two private-market companies, but dozens at a time. Instead of shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to hit a PE fund’s minimum buy-in, this access typically starts at about $15 to $20 per share.… Read more

Look, I’ll be honest: I’m bullish on our favorite income investments, high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs), as we head toward 2024.

Fact is, these overlooked income stalwarts are still on sale after the 2022 pullback, with the ticker we’ll talk about below going for an absurd 17.2% below its true value.

We can thank CEF investors’ conservative nature for that—they still don’t trust this year’s rebound. So our chance to grab big payouts at a discount is still available. Right now, the portfolio of my CEF Insider service is generating a rich 9.9% average yield.

But that said, we always need to keep an eye on factors that could go sideways in the future, so we can shift gears—and protect our capital and income streams—at a moment’s notice.… Read more