Articles

Investors are sitting on a shot at 100%+ dividend growth and a safe 6.9% yield—and most don’t even know it.

The route to this dividend bonanza runs through real estate investment trusts (REITs) that own apartment buildings. These landlords are raking in cash, with US rents skyrocketing by double digits in the last nine months. (We’ll discuss three specific names shortly.)

Higher cash flows translate straight into surging dividends because REITs are “pass-through” investments: they collect the rent, take out what they need to keep their tenants happy (and renewing their leases!) and send the rest our way.

This pass-through structure is no formality.… Read more

There’s an unusual shift unfolding in the labor market that we contrarians can tap for outsized dividends (I’m talking a near-10% yield here), plus price upside for years to come.

We’ll do it using a closed-end fund (CEF) that’s tethered itself to a trend everyone has missed—a trend that’s concealed behind a metric called the labor force participation rate, or LFPR.

It may have a boring name, but that doesn’t stop the media from reporting on the LFPR. You’ve likely heard it pop up in the mainstream press from time to time.

It simply refers to the percentage of the population that’s actively working or looking for work.… Read more

In this zero point nothing yield environment, investors will scratch any post possible, attempting to unearth yield in sometimes all the wrong places.

Within my world of coverage (REITs), it’s a struggle to find attractive yields in that 5% plus range, something that used to be a lot simpler in more normal interest rate environments.

Today, the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) yields 2.6%, double that of the S&P 500 index. It’s not BAD, but it’s not what many of us need when planning out our retirement income.

I’ve seen an adventurous retiree or two dip their toes into those REITs yielding above 6%, grasping for yield, however ignoring all the risks associated with a dividend more than double the sector average.… Read more

Tech stocks have taken a header, and we contrarians are going to take advantage and set ourselves up for some serious upside—and 5.6% dividends, too.

Why are we zeroing in on tech now?

Because investors have been (wrongly) fretting over a 1970s-style inflation flare-up, and they’ve been (wrongly) taking it out on tech stocks over the last few weeks.

In a way, the selloff makes sense, as higher inflation, and the rising interest rates that come with it, cut into tech stocks’ profit growth—and investors look to tech mainly for that exceptional profit growth, which drives their share prices.

(Our favorite income plays, closed-end funds, or CEFs, let us take a different path, getting a big slice of our tech profits as cash dividends that we control, instead of less predictable price gains.… Read more

Do retirement solutions come any better than a safe 8% dividend, paid monthly?

This is what we contrarian income seekers love about the Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund (FAX). It pays 8% annually, dishes its dividend every month and, thanks to the debt situation in China, trades at a 7% discount to its net asset value (NAV)!

Last week, we pointed out a “mini-panic” buying opportunity in FAX. Its price had suffered, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the fund’s NAV—the value of its bonds minus debt—which has barely budged over the past month:

NAV Was Steady, Pullback Was Price Only

Its price had been punished because armchair market observers fear Evergrande and the Chinese credit markets.… Read more

Let’s jump on the market’s September slide and grab ourselves a sweet “double discount” on 358 totally ignored income plays—and some sweet 6%+ dividends, too. And our new income stream will pay us monthly!

Going Where Other Dividend Investors Don’t

Our route to this big monthly payout does an end run around the misers of the S&P 500. Even though the market dove 3.5% in September, that was only enough to drive yields on the big-name stocks up by—wait for it—0.07%.

In other words, if you dropped a million bucks into an ETF like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) in early September, you’d be generating $12,300 in yearly dividends.… Read more

I know you’ve heard the common Wall Street “wisdom” that, when it comes to investing for the long haul, you’re best to simply put your money in an index fund and call it a day.

Everyone parrots this “advice.” Even Warren Buffett himself!

Today we’re going to dive into why this advice is one of the most effective ways to lose money fast (not to mention a chance at big dividends, like the growing 5% payout we’ll discuss below).

In fact, if the average middle-class person had stuck with a market-based ETF over the last seven years instead of going just one step further and investing in an actively managed closed-end fund (CEF), they would have missed out on over a million dollars’ worth of gains (and dividends).… Read more

I love investing in stocks where I know my bad habits (Amazon ordering) help juice a company’s bottom line.

One of my favorite REITs falls into this camp.

It’s phones have been ringing off the hook to get ahold of its invaluable warehouse and industrial properties which are the backbone of all e-commerce operators.

Its shares have also helped investors DOUBLE their otherwise pedestrian returns from the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) over the past three years.

Not only have its returns outpaced the market, but it has a habit of paying out special dividends that our retirement portfolios can certainly appreciate.… Read more

The surest, safest way to double our money in the stock market is to buy the dividends that are growing the fastest.

It doesn’t matter if the broader market is heading up, down or sideways. Over time, stock prices eventually follow their dividends. Show me a growing payout, and I’ll show you a stock price that has serious upside.

Looking beyond current yields for future dividends is a simple yet powerful concept. I know that you already appreciate stocks that pay. It’s why we get along so well.

We can also apply our favorite fundamental attribute—a company’s willingness and ability to put cash in our pocket—to find the safest growth stocks in the market.… Read more

Let’s dive into a brand-new CEF many people are ignoring—and see how we can ride it to some fast gains (and a growing 6.4% dividend).

When a new CEF rolls down the skids, our antennae always go up, because getting into a new fund before anyone else picks up on it is one of the most exciting ways to build wealth (and a rich income stream) in CEFs.

That’s because most CEF investors are conservative by nature, and they tend to shun new funds (even those run by some of the best CEF managers in the business). That results in big discounts we can jump on—and ride to quick 10%, 20% or even 30% gains in short order.… Read more