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I’m hearing from a lot of CEF Insider members who are worried about inflation these days, and there’s a good reason why: consumer prices raced up 6.2% in October from a year ago!

The good news is that we’ve got an easy setup that lets us work inflation fears to our advantage, grabbing ourselves bigger dividends, and bigger price upside, as we do. All we have to do is buy stock-focused closed-end funds (CEFs) on dips when inflation reports come out.

(Below we’ll discuss two CEFs you can target on these dips. They’re built to protect your portfolio—and your dividends!—if inflation proves more than transitory.… Read more

I stopped pulling my suitcase and fumbled for my phone. “Owens.”

“Hey buddy,” I replied to my childhood friend. “If it’s loud… well I’m in Vegas. On the Strip actually, walking to my hotel to check in.”

It was almost 80 degrees. Your income strategist was sweating through his shoes and pants and, more concerning, he’d forgotten his hat—which meant the top of his increasingly exposed head was being slowly but surely sizzled by the desert sun.

But “shortcuts” back through the casinos would require re-masking up, per Nevada state law. Plus, they are loud. And my boy wanted to talk about cryptos, even though he’d done very little investing through his entire life.… Read more

Let’s beat back this Fed-fueled market—where everything seems pricey—with three proven strategies that prime us for 100%+ gains, and 100%+ dividend growth, too.

One of them is a nifty ploy that sets us up to “front run” a 100%+ return by getting in companies about to split their businesses. At the end of it all, we’ll end up with two growing dividends instead of just one! (We’ll cover the two telltale signs of a looming split in a bit.)

These three strategies are the inner workings of my Hidden Yields dividend-growth service, which has delivered a 14.7% annualized return since launch in September 2015.… Read more

Thinking of joining the “Great Resignation” crowd and dumping your 9-to-5 gig? Let’s talk about how you can do it with outsized 7%+ dividends that easily keep the bills paid.

I’m going to show you the powerful secret some of these “quitters” are using today. It all turns on a unique kind of asset called a closed-end fund (CEF) that’ll be our source for those rock-steady 7%+ dividends (paid monthly, to boot!).

More Investors Discover the Income-Producing Power of CEFs

First off, a funny thing is happening as people dump their day jobs: they’re investing more, with the number of new investors jumping 15% in 2020, and scores of folks who already invest building out their portfolios further.… Read more

The long-awaited infrastructure bill has passed. Let’s talk about the six best dividend stocks to capitalize on this spending.

Here’s where the larger chunks of money are going:

• $110 billion to build new roads, bridges and other major infrastructure
• $66 billion to improve passenger and freight rail
• $65 to upgrade America’s broadband infrastructure
• $65 billion to upgrade and build up the electric grid
• $55 billion to improve America’s water infrastructure
• $39 billion to modernize public transit
• $25 billion to repair and maintain airports
• $17 billion to update port infrastructure
• $7.5 billion to build a network of electric vehicle chargers
• $7.5 billion to create low-emission buses and ferries

Most of this “obvious” government spending is going to industrials and materials firms.… Read more

I’m guessing you heard about the plunge in Tesla (TSLA) stock spurred by founder Elon Musk’s recent tweet asking if he should sell 10% of his shares.

(The tweet—a poll of Twitter users—garnered a positive response, by the way; Musk says he’ll abide by it.)

I know—another bizarre Musk tweet doesn’t seem to mean much to us income investors. But this one is different, because as hard as it may be to believe, it’s telling us one thing: buy municipal bonds—an asset class many investors dismiss as “sleepy.” That’s not true: there’s a reason why “munis” are favored among billionaires, starting with their huge tax-free dividends.… Read more

Thank you to our 1,405 Contrarian Income Report subscribers who attended our “VIP” Q4 webcast a couple of weeks back! We chatted about bond funds paying 9%+, Federal Reserve “fueled” funds for 54% yearly returns, and more.

Prior to the webcast, we collected over 30 questions from thoughtful subscribers. We addressed most of these on the call. However, during the session, 70 more great income questions came in!

As promised, I read everyone one. Let’s chat about the most common questions today.

Q: I’m 64 years old and am just concerned about retiring on dividends. I own PCI which pays a high dividend but trades at a high premium.… Read more

“Don’t Fight the Fed” was chapter 4 in investing wizard Martin Zweig’s legendary book Winning on Wall Street. He devoted 40 thoughtful pages to teach readers why they should “go with the flow” with respect to the Fed’s trend at any given moment.

As we recently heard from Fed Chair Jay Powell himself, the Fed is fixated on tapering. That is going to send a select group of dividend stocks to the moon.

I’m talking about “Fed-driven” price gains of 136% here—and 161% dividend hikes, too. (Those numbers aren’t pulled from the air; they’re exactly what was delivered by one of the three overlooked regional-bank stocks we’ll discuss below.… Read more

There are three funds hiding in plain sight that do something everyone thinks is impossible: pay huge dividends—with yields up to 7.2%—and deliver outsized 24%+ total returns, too.

I know I don’t have to tell you what an inflation-fighting weapon a return like that would be these days.

These are no less than the world’s three best-performing closed-end funds (CEFs) over the long term, and today we’re going to rank them from third to first to see if any (or all!) of them have a place in our investment portfolios.

“World’s Best” CEF #3: 24% Annual Returns for Years and Years

The least impressive CEF on the list, the Columbia Seligman Premium Technology Growth Fund (STK), has “only” a 23.7% annualized return, based on its market price, over the last five years, with a dividend that’s held steady throughout that time (and yields 5.1% today).… Read more

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have become quite popular with income investors in recent years. And why not? These “retirement makers” are required to give 90% of their profits to their shareholders as dividends.

So, if you’re looking to retire on dividends, REITs are a natural place to look.

Problem is, their popularity comes at a price. The Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) yields just 2.5% today—pretty lame by its standards:

The Problem with Popularity: VNQ Pays Just 2.5%

A disappearing dividend isn’t the only problem with VNQ. Like most ETFs it tends to overweight the largest REITs, which typically translates into both lower overall yields and slower dividend growth.… Read more