Articles

We’ve been extolling cash in these pages since the start of this year. As the Federal Reserve prepared to pause its money printer, we contrarians booked profits and stacked dollar bills.

Long before the media began saying “bear market,” we recognized that a volatile 2022 was highly likely. We were ready for a decline.

As I write, our premium portfolios are all sitting on sizeable cash positions:

Yup. Plenty of capital ready to be deployed after the final “wash out” in the markets.

These comfortable cash seats have served us well. Bonds kicked off their worst start to a year since 1788 (per Nasdaq).… Read more

In the current environment, with more downside likely to come, one of the best things you and I can do is nothing.

… or at least, next to nothing.

I recently wrote about the virtues of a “no beta” portfolio—basically holding on to cash until it’s time to “back up the truck” at a major market bottom.

But I left the door open—”if you must buy, please promise me you’ll keep it low beta. It’s the next best option to low-beta cash”—and for good reason.

The Case for Low Beta

“Anyone who studies finance learns early on that risk and reward go hand in hand and that with higher expected returns come higher risks.… Read more

Today I want to show you how to build a “three-click” income portfolio that gives us three things every income investor craves, especially these days:

1. Big discounts on our investments.
2. Big dividends, with a 10.6% yield averaged out across three funds.
3. Wide diversification, with investments from across the economy.

Put the three closed-end funds (CEFs) I’ll show you below together into their own “mini-portfolio” and you could pull $10,600 in dividends from a $100K investment; $53,000 from $500K and a six-figure income stream—$106,000—from a million.

Let me introduce these three high-yielding CEFs to you now.

CEF #1: Tapping the Energy Boom for a 7.1% Payout

The ClearBridge Energy MLP Total Return Fund (CTR) yields 7.1% as I write and comes to us at a 20.3% discount to net asset value (NAV, or the per-share value of its portfolio).… Read more

When I was a kid, I took a martial arts class for a year or two. It wasn’t particularly structured, and I think it was just my mom’s way of burning off my energy in a controlled environment to prevent me from destroying the house.

Based on the amount of patched drywall in the house where I grew up, it didn’t work very well.

I honestly don’t remember much from those classes. But one thing I do recall is the concept of “aikido,” a Japanese martial arts style that involves using your opponent’s movements and momentum to your own advantage.

There’s a certain elegance to aikido, and a core philosophy behind it that’s worth remembering in other areas of life—including investing.… Read more

We all know the markets are undergoing a shift—and it’s time for us to stop and take a look at what it all means for our dividend portfolios, particularly our closed-end fund (CEF) holdings.

So today we’re going to step back and look at the economic state of play. (Hint: it’s not as bad as the headline writers lead us to believe: CEF investors—and particularly members of my CEF Insider service—are nicely positioned for the months to come.) I’ll also name a 7.4% dividend that’s currently trading at a bargain price.

History Is on Our Side

Let’s start with corporate profits, which came in better than expected in the first quarter of 2022, with over three-quarters of companies across all sectors reporting earnings above expectations, more than the average, with earnings up 9.1% from a year ago.… Read more

The yield on the 10-year Treasury has rallied near 3%. Yet there’s no way you and I are retiring off that pittance!

Hence the appeal of closed-end funds (CEFs), which regularly pay 7% or better. That’s the difference between a paltry income below $30,000 on a million buck nest egg or a respectable $70,000 annually.

And if you’re smart about your CEF purchases, you can even buy these funds at discounts and snare some price upside to boot!

With the markets in flux (to say the least), now is a good time to review the principles of successful CEF investing. They are more nuanced than classic stock picking because we’re analyzing managers, strategies and holdings versus simple businesses models.… Read more

Most folks dread checking their retirement accounts these days, but not us contrarian income-seekers. We’re coolly playing our “no-withdrawal” retirement strategy, paying our bills with 7% to 9% dividends—while leaving our pile of saved cash alone.

I know that sounds pretty sanguine—boastful, even—when the S&P 500 is down nearly 20%. But deep down, most people know that a “dividends-only” retirement really is the best way to go.

Trouble is, most folks don’t know how to get there. I’ll lay out a roadmap that could let you hang ’em up on dividends alone with as little as $500K saved a little further on.… Read more

In a plunging market like this one, it’s critical to play the long game. For us closed-end fund (CEF) investors, that means staying invested, because we simply do not want to be out of the market when the (inevitable!) bounce comes.

More important, we need to keep our income streams rolling in. They’ve never been more critical than they are now. And CEFs are throwing off some very healthy payouts these days, with the average CEF yielding north of 7% as I write this.

But there are a few things we can do to further reinforce our dividends and tone down our portfolio’s volatility.… Read more

Thanks to the market’s selloff, we finally have some dividend deals out there. In a moment, I’ll highlight a five-pack of sweet-paying dividend stocks (as in, 4.0% to 11.3% yields) that are cheap cash cows.

It’s important that we focus on value, cash flow and yield as we cherry pick the bargain bin. More pain is likely ahead for the broader markets.

Stocks have been a dumpster fire in 2022 because the Federal Reserve is turning off its money printer. The Fed’s balance sheet growth is flattening (already a problem for equities) and will shrink soon:

Fed “Taper” Big Problem for Stocks

Meanwhile, Russia’s war machine and China’s latest COVID fight have made an even bigger mess of global supply chains, further fueling already white-hot prices.… Read more

Nobody’s perfect. And in 2022, it’s particularly hard to pretend that you never make a losing trade as the market has been incredibly volatile through no fault of our own.

That said, there’s the old saying that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over but expecting different results. So if you have a habit of making bad trades, maybe the bigger problem isn’t the stock market… but your strategy.

One particularly risky strategy that I see some income investors cling to is the notion of placing a priority on yield above everything else. And like Captain Renault, these investors always seem to be shocked – shocked!… Read more